Dirk's Three Laws (and One Strong Suggestion) of Band Naming

Working in the music business you see tons of bands for whom the task of coming up with the first thing people will hear about them - the name - has apparently been given less thought than their hairstyles or the music. To assist those who aren't gifted in the dark arts of band naming, I've assembled the following list of guidelines that you ignore at your peril. (And yes, there are more than three if you want to be picky.)

Rule #1 - The name should be memorable. This should be self-explanatory, but too many bands don't seem to understand that if no one remembers your band's name, no one will remember the band. Pink Floyd, Van Halen, even The Arcade Fire have names that can be remembered; Above All, Malajube, Menomena, and Shad (all actual bands at SXSW 2011) don't. Punny names like Jehovah Waitresses or The Victorious Secrets help. (I've used Atomic Guam and Iron Oreo as Rock Band and Guitar Hero names.)

Rule #2 - The name should indicate what sort of music you play. Iron Maiden implies one thing; Air Supply implies another. What does Sweet Jane sound like; a Velvet Underground tribute act? Atari Teenage Riot sounds like their name. Does your name sound like your band?

Rule #3 - It should be easy enough to spell so juvenile delinquents can grafitti it everywhere. I was considering naming my band The Bourgeoisie until I realized I had to think hard about how to spell it. Did I want "Teh Borzwahzee Rulez!" spray-painted on overpasses and alley walls? That's why I went with Red September.

The One Strong Suggestion - Try out the name in the sentence, "Hi, we're [band name]." Does it sound stupid or offensive or like something your mother would blush at or would it make J.D. Considine's work of writing a snarky one-sentence review twisting it for maximum damage easy? Then go back to the start and come up with something not terrible. There was once a band called Lame. Try that out in the sentence. Can J.D. reply, "Yes, you are."? Then it's a terrible name. Start over. Seriously.

For a time, these Laws did the job, but over time I recognized other factors to be dealt with, thus leading to the first extension to the Laws:

Rule #3.5 - The name should not have to be seen for the joke to be understood. I once saw a band called Raindance several times before learning it was spelled R-E-I-G-N-dance. Get it? Neither did I. Homophones are trouble and not because they sound like listening devices for gay people. If your name sounds like Laughing Carrots, do not spell it Laffing Carats.

Because too many bands ignore the One Strong Suggestion, I've had to add:

Rule #3.6 - If the name includes one of the "7 Dirty Words" than you don't want to be famous. No one is going to sign and promote or cover bands called Sh*t and Shine, Sh*t Horse, or Sh*t Robot. (More real SXSW bands.) There's a band around town called Sh*tf*cker and while they're commended for being able to gig without detectable brain activity, their name alone precludes interest from anyone who doesn't giggle at the word "poop" every time.

Rule #4 - Logos must be clear enough that the band name can be discerned in 1.7 seconds or less. This stems from seeing an ad for a death metal festival where about 30 bands were playing, but I could only tell the names of 80% of the acts. The rest had logos that tried so hard to look like lightning bolts, spiderwebs, Klingon bat'leths and whatnot, they were illegible. Hippie jam bands are also frequent offenders as they have psychedelic melted balloon typography. Hey, Trustafarians, the reason the Fillmore posters could get away with it was because the people back then were on acid and to them the words looked like they were in Helvetica.

CFE: Regarding U2's "No Bars on the Verizon"

THE BACKGROUND: In his Big Hollywood post, "U2 & Me", Matt Patterson discusses his mixed, but ultimately positive, reaction to "No Line on the Horizon", which I refer to by the title of this post. I posted this comment:

U2 was one of the few acts I would still schlep down to the Beast Buy to plunk down my Hamilton to blind (deaf?) buy their latest on the day it came out. When the album leaked a couple weeks early, I decided to try before I bought and I am so glad I didn't waste a farthing for this turgid bore of an album.

Background: I've been a fan of theirs since 1980 when a high school pal had a t-shirt for their "Boy" album. My band covered "I Will Follow" at our annual Big 80s show last year. I have all their albums except for "Poop" (as I call it), which was such half-baked mess due to their having to push it out the door in time for the already-planned tour. (I gave that to my girlfriend with whom our first real date was a Zoo TV concert in 1992.)

I thought "All That You Can't Leave Behind" was the sound of a band with nothing to prove casually rebounding from their self-inflicted irony overload and delivering a solid album. I call "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" a "Wonderbra album" because what was up front - the sublime "Vertigo" - was just a tease because what came after was a flat experience that sounded like the Edge scrolling thru his guitar effect presets of classic tones.

Where "No Bars on the Verizon" (heh) flops is that the laziness and distractedness of the lyrics are only compounded by the lackluster music. Larry is playing the same beats; the best lick in the title track is the one Edge nicked from "The Fly"; every song is a slow to mid-tempo dirge except "Get On Your Boots" which serves as a midpoint wake-up nudge more than an exciting and memorable song.

Most critics are just rubber-stamping 5-star/A+ reviews for this thing like they automatically award the latest loaves pinched by Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, or any act that bashed Dubya. Fans who can't cope with the idea that their beloved band could fail are happy-talking, too. But for those still able to see whether the monarch dressed for the day or not, "No Bars" is the sound of a band that should decide whether they want to save the world or save their musical reputations.

Oscars 2009 Running Commentary.

C&Ped from the original posting elsewhere:

• For the first time in I think ever, I've actually seen all five Best Picture and most of the acting nominees BEFORE the Oscar show. That The Wrestler and Dark Knight aren't in the mix while the muddled and mediocre The Reader and glorified TV movie Frost/Nixon are occupying slots is ridiculous.
• Also ridiculous is the one-strap gowns all these women are wearing. WTF is Amy Adams wearing around her neck?!? Nice dress, terrible necklace.
• I'm wondering who's gonna get more shout outs: God or Obama?
• Mickey Rourke has a picture of his dead dog on his necklace. Sean Penn should drop out for this alone.
• Hermione is screaming, “No color! No color!”, at the drab bedsheets and neutral colors on parade.
• Ugh, Marissa Tomei’s dress is awful. TAKE IT OFF NOW!
• Wow. Glitzy crystal curtain. I need to get one of those for the tool shed.
• Cute opening number. Craig’s List Dancers! Yummy Girl sings too! Nice dig at The Reader.
• Well, after only 12 minutes of high energy fun, they’re already boring us with montages.
• Hmmm….not sure if I dig this gang nominee reader thing. Shouldn’t Tilda (and whoever comes next) get the spotlight herself? Jeez, can’t we get some clips instead of the tribute speeches. Awful, simply awful. Funny Whoopi line, but I’d rather see clips.
• The only category where there were five solid contenders and some question as to who would win still ended up predictably. Cruz is a fine choice, though I was rooting for Tomei.
• Funny skit with Steve Martin and Tina Fey about writing that gives a certain cult a kick in the shins. No surprise at the Milk win and no surprise that a lot of Prop 8 subtext was in the speech. Did he just tip off Federal imposition of gay marriage even though Dear Leader has claimed to be against it? Hmmmm….
• Penthouse Cat Dollarnaire gets its first trophy. I wonder if Benjamin Button would’ve been a better choice because it required more spade work to get it on the screen from the source?
• Jennifer Anniston looks like she’s been crying. Must’ve been fun for her to have to stand smack dab in front of Brangelina. Say hi to John Mayer, loser.
• Who is this Japanese guy with the…did he just say ”Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto”?!?!?!? Where was I? Oh, yeah, the French movie title? I’ll have to track this down cuz Presto was a blast and would’ve been my pick.
• OK, I see what they’re doing with the order of categories, so why did they put Best Supporting Actress up first? Shouldn’t all the acting awards be in the middle and the editing, score and special effects awards last?
• Quick! Who just won the Art Direction and Costume Oscars that were won a few minutes ago? Can’t remember? Exactly!!!
• I don’t think Benji Button should’ve gotten Best Makeup because so much of it is CGI, not traditional makeup. Hellboy II should’ve won.
• Nice romance montage.
• We’re an hour in and have handed out eight awards.
• Ben Stiller channels Joaquin Phoenix and sets up the leading contender for Line of the Night: ”You look like you work at a Hassidic meth lab.”
• The inevitability of Penthouse Cat Dollarnaire winning has been sealed with the Cinematography Oscar. Where will the upsets come for the rest of the night? I hear TVs clicking off across America.
• Jeez, WTF was that bedsheet Jessica Biel was wearing? When you’ve got the bodacious curves, why would you cover them unless Justin Timbaland is threatening to go all Chris Brown on you if you don’t hide the badonkadonk.
• KILLER Judd Apatow short with the Pineapple Express guys and Januz Kaminski. Loved the bit with Franco’s kissing scenes from Milk cutting back to him. (He should’ve been nommed for Milk over Josh Brolin.) 2nd best LotN from Januz: ”Suck on that Andrew Dod Mantle!” Rogen cracks up and Franco munching the winner’s name.
• Hermione observes that Jackman’s been MIA while they’ve had comedians presenting most awards.
• Now he’s back doing the musical number that no one axed for. At first, when Bouncy came up, I thought that Queen Latifah sure has trimmed down. OK number, but drags the show out.
• Alan Arkin gets to announce the winner for the 2nd year in the row as Dora the Explorer opts to not show up for the cattle call. WTF is Seymour Philip Hoffman (sic) wearing on his head. Gee, more Prop 8-bashing from Joel Grey. Bore-ring. Walken’s creeping me out. Not a dry eye in the house as Heath Ledger’s family picks up his trophy. Damn shame he couldn’t have done so himself. A damn crying shame.
• Jeez, why didn’t they go to commercial after that moment? To stomp on that poignant moment with the canned Documentary reel was as tone-deaf as an A&R guy.
• Oh, jeez, Bill Maher? Every TV not in 212 and 818 just clicked off. Remember when this asstackler was in movies like D.C. Cab and shows like Hard Knocks? Oh, isn’t he cute pimping his Christianity-bashing film? Hey, Big Brave Man, why not speak out for Geert Wilders, you f*cking coward? Funny how you only bash the religions who won’t hack your empty head off. Pussy.
• Good action montage. Looks like Angelina Jolie was in half the montage.
• Benjamin Button wins Best Visual Effects. Damn right! I smacked down a herd of Comic Book Guys squabbling about Iron Dude vs. Bat Dude over at Gizmodo because while the comic book flicks were fine, BB was something truly extraordinary.
• ”Boom goes the dynamite!” Somewhere a college TV sportscaster wishes he’d trademarked the phrase.
• Why the snippet of “Mr. Blue Sky”?
• Interesting that the Indian sound mixer calls the city Bombay, not the politically correct Mumbai. Hmmmm.
• I hope no one has to call for tech support tomorrow because all the folks answering the phones will be hungover and slurring and more unintelligible than usual.
• How horrible is this tribute to Jerry Lewis gonna be?
• Hey, look, it’s Eddie “I released Norbit in time to blow my Oscar win” Murphy handing out Jerry Lewis’ Jean Hersholt Award. Oh, that’s right, they both did Nutty Professor movies. Jerry looks hella better than the last time I saw him when he was all puffy from steroids when he was going for the home run title.
• I figured out why Hoffman Phillip Seymour is wearing the skullcap: he’s playing the Edge in a U2 biopic.
• I like the way the stage is set up, though the crystal curtain seems to have gone MIA.
• Zac Efron and Alicia Keys – that’s some big-time Hollywood firepower.
• I liked Danny Elfman’s Milk score; a nice jazzy change of pace from his usual circus music.
• I guess it’s safe for the Benjamin Button crowd to head over to the after-party and the bar since they ain’t gonna be picking up anything.
• God just got a mention, so He takes a lead over Obama and Bill Maher has to be stifled from screaming by a beefy Teamster.
• Tonight, the part of Peter Gabriel will be played by John Legend backed by the Paul Simon Singers.
• With M.I.A. MIA, who are the girls covering for her? Also, what’s with the T-Pain effect on his vocals?
• God increases His lead with another mention. Bill Maher has been sedated to prevent him chewing his tongue off.
• Queen Latifah was fine, but when, oh when, are they going to do the Death Parade to the dulcet tones of Jim Carroll? Come on! Sydney Pollack and Paul Newman tie for applause.
• How many commercials is Jeff Bridges going to be doing the voice-overs on?
• Reese “I didn’t deserve my Oscar but I’m not giving it back” Witherspoon is dressed like a hobo. A glitzy hobo, but still a hobo. Was a blue dress not enough, needing the black curtains to be draped over it all?
• Danny Boyle gets an Oscar for making a movie with a script that didn’t collapse in the third act. Learn from it, Bub. You still suck for everything you’ve effed-up before though. (*cough*28 Days Later*cough*Sunshine*cough*Trainspotting*cough*Shallow Grave*cough*)
• Glitzy lineup for the Best Actress presenters. I still miss the clips from the films; that is what they’re winning for after all. Of the nominees, I’ve seen the fewest of these, having only seen Doubt and The Reader. Of the two, I think Streep was a bit better than Winslet, but Kate’s been due for a while. How about one for Glenn Close now? Great moment with her dad whistling.
• Nice that they’ve let the speeches run a little over without cueing the orchestra to stomp on the moments.
• I wonder if Robert DeNiro and Ben Kingsley compared notes about how to squander artistic credibility while chasing paychecks? It’s interesting how they’ve sometimes paired former colleagues like DeNiro toasting Penn and Hopkins introing Pitt.
• Well, politics trumped performance with Penn’s win. “Commie, homo-loving, sons-of-guns”, is precisely how he won. Now, I know the haters here will think that I’m upset because Penn is a disgusting sack of sh*t who can’t suck tyrannical dictators’ d*cks fast enough and should be torn to shreds by rabid badgers, but that’s not the problem. I watched Milk a few nights ago and was quite impressed by his performance, but the next night I watched The Wrestler and Rourke was simply much better. Take Rourke out and Penn would be OK to win, but instead the Pink Mafia and Prop 8 opponents chose to jerk off their politics first on a night that most of the awards have been justified. That Penn outdumped Maher was a foregone conclusion. Bleah. Hollywood just can’t stick their thumbs in the paying customer’s eyes hard enough, can they?
• Slumdog Millionaire, a film that Warner Bros almost dumped straight to DVD, wins Best Picture thus proving William Goldman correct. I think it was a little overrated, but of the nominees, it was my co-favorite.
• Overall it was a decent show. Jackman was charming and a lot of the numbers and bits were entertaining. The tributes from previous acting winners simply didn’t work. Lose ‘em and show clips.
• Overall score: B+

The Unending Rage of Janeane Garofalo Never Ends. (Updated & Bumped)

(Note: This was originally posted 12/23/08, but I've changed the time index to bump it to the top so the update is seen.)

I was at Borders tonight picking up Robot Chicken: Season Three and looking at the magazine rack. On the cover of Geek Monthly was a smiling, brunette Janeane Garofalo - no longer sporting the self-loathing fried bleached blonde mop she had - with the headling "Crashing Bush's Party" in conjunction with her upcoming role on the next season of the Jack Bauer Power Hour (aka "24").

In the article, she was spewing the same insane rage-filled garbage she has been since she decided she'd be as offensive as she could be to anyone who dared not goosestep with her BDS samba. The same old "Bush-Cheney cabal" and lies that the show that she isn't too proud to take a paycheck from was an inspiration for Gitmo torture are trotted out for the umpteenth time. Didn't Obama just get elected last month? WTF are they still yammering on about Dubya? Why can't these losers just take their own advice and MOVE THE F*CK ON?!?

As the interview dragged on, she revealed that she was raised in a conservative, religious household and she had accepted what her father told her as the gospel truth until she went to college and was called an "asshole" for daring to voice her opinions. She was so shocked, she basically rejected everything she was raised to believe and became the shrill liberal harpie she is now. Well, there we have it: Daddy issues that would shock Electra and acceptance-craving that destroys any illusions she's actually an iconoclast when she blindly disposes of her family in order to curry favor with the crowd she wants to be part of.

So sad. I just watched "The Truth About Cats & Dogs" a few weeks ago and she was so winsome and cute then; easily the more desirable choice of her and Uma Thurman. I endured the schlocky "The Matchmaker" just because she was in it and I loved her cameo in "The Cable Guy" as the Medieval Times serving wench, but in her off-screen dealings, she's become insufferable and it's too bad because it damages her on-screen effectiveness. When she was cast on "24", a lot of people were outraged that a seething, anti-government malcontent would be sullying the JBPH as a FBI agent(!), but unlike the intolerant Lefties (like her, ironically), I'm going to try and look beyond her rancid politics. (Face it, if I didn't watch any TV/films because the stars were pinheads, I'd be watching nothing and as stupid as he is offscreen, Alec Baldwin kicks ass on "30 Rock".)

When Garofalo started on Air AmeriKKKa, I tuned into her show and after 45 minutes of her tirades, I had to bail before I woofed my cookies. Hearing her sounding upset that our soldiers' improved body armor was resulting in fewer deaths, but more crippling injuries, was just maddening. She was angry that our soldiers weren't dying enough for her taste; the same soldiers who were fighting the Islamofascists who would deny her a career and the ability to spout off freely whatever lunacy that entered her empty head. Just pathetic, but so typical for Hollyweird of today. Power Line had an obit for Van Johnson that explores the anti-military attitudes of Hollyweird that's enlightening, not that Janeane Garofalo has any use for facts that don't keep her in the in-crowd and slapping back against her father. Of course, she doesn't see the irony that conservatives are mostly blacklisted by her fellow travelers in the industry while she takes a job on a show she despises its best qualities of. (i.e. Jack Bauer kicking terrorist ass for his country!)

Final irony? She encourages people to go to Borders to get information. Who knew that Borders was considered the info spot for unhinged Lefties? I mean, other than me, that is? (I've joked with my g/f that she couldn't get a job at Borders because she's too hetero for them. Heh.) While I was in the DVD section, the sales girl was actually recommening "10,000 B.C." to a customer, so that should tell you the level of information Janeane expects you to swallow from her fave bookstore.

What was I doing there since it's such a evil place? Saving 40% on my DVDs, that's what - best price available anywhere. Score! Let the Commies figure out how to make a buck themselves. Heh.

UPDATE & BUMP: 24 is now nine hours into the season and Janeane has been OK, though a lot of liberals at this one forum I post at are bagging on her dour mien. (Maybe they wish she would sabotage Jack in the name of extreme liberals everywhere?) Anyhoo, I saw this interview quoted on Big Hollywood and here's what the typically "open-minded", "diverse" and "tolerant" liberal has to say:

The reason a person is a conservative republican is because something is wrong with them. Again, that’s science – that’s neuroscience. You cannot be well adjusted, open-minded, pluralistic, enlightened and be a republican. It’s counter-intuitive. And they revel in their anti-intellectualism. They revel in their cruelty.

Sarah Palin [is] small-minded and mean-spirited. It has nothing to do with gender — I don’t give a shit about her gender — she is what the Republican Party has become: obstructionist, contrarians, small-minded, all of these things. She just happens to be attractive. There’s definitely something wrong with her. She’s lacking in so many areas. Of course she’s successful with a segment of the country because she represents that lesser segment of the country. It’s people’s lesser nature – their human frailty. You know whatever’s wrong with them is what she is about.

That's right, Janeane; the woman who has raised a family, worked a fishing trawler, and took on the entrenched old boys club of Alaskan politics to rise to the chief executive position of that state is stupid, crazy and a sign of how stupid and crazy you believe the proles of America to be. And who better to tell us than a bitter and rage-filled actress who hasn't been SEEN (she was a voice player in Ratatouille) by any substantial audiences in at least a decade until now on 24? If anyone is narrow and cruel, it's you, babe. That's why you're still single, your joke marriage 16 years ago that you didn't ever dissolve notwithstanding. You used to be cute and funny, now you're just vile and miserable. You have my pity, you miserable twit.

==============

ANOTHER UPDATE (2/27/09): Jeez, she just can't help herself, can she? Appearing with fellow traveler and raving loon Keith Olbermann:

After mentioning that former CNN anchor Daryn Kagan used to date Limbaugh, Garofalo cracked that Kagan has Stockholm Syndrome, which she also attributed to RNC Chairman Michael Steele, with Olbermann agreeing that Steele suffers from "self-loathing":

JANEANE GAROFALO: She dated him, so either she suffers from Stockholm Syndrome – a lot like Michael Steele, who’s the black guy in the Republican party who suffers from Stockholm Syndrome, which means you try and curry favor with the oppressor.

KEITH OLBERMANN: Yes, you talk about self-loathing.

GAROFALO: Yeah, and there’s, any female or person of color in the Republican party is struggling with Stockholm Syndrome.

So charming. Note that the picture has her credited as a "political activist", as if running around spewing lies and insanity on friendly media outlets contributes anything to society. Pffft.

(h/t Big Hollywood)

Obama's First Fortnight A Fabulous Failure!

My girlfriend consoled (correctly) that we should see how The One, the Obamessiah, the Lightworker, the Healer of the World, Lower of the Oceans and blah-blah-woof-woof actually does when he's on the job. Can't really complain about someone before they get to sit in the Big Chair, can we? Sure. Well, we've had two weeks of the Obama Regime and it's quite clear that it has been an...

EPIC FAIL!!!

Barry hasn't turned to corner from running (and running his mouth) to being a leader because, as those not hypnotized by the Treason Media's hype have always know, he's an empty suit who leveraged slick packaging, an undercurrent of racial terrorism (i.e. vote for Him or we'll call you RAAAAAAAAAAAACCIISSSSSTT!!!!), and the fact that the Stupid Party was utterly lost and bankrupt to get a gig he wasn't qualified for and didn't deserve.

The sheer amount of bald-faced criminality he has ushered in would be shocking if not for the fact that he's a typical Chicago politician. The only difference is that instead of being confined to Chicago, Cook County and Illinois, his antics are on a national and global stage and as a result, America is in trouble at the hands of a naif who bamboozled a frightened and ignorant public into believing that Dubya was the bad guy. (Not that Dubya did anything to dissuade the smears; his being a turn-the-other-cheek Christian chump and all.) Only the clueless - the largest part of Obambi's base - should've been surprised that he'd pack his administration with tax cheats, lobbyists, influence-peddlers, etc. I've always said that the only reason Dems complained about GOP corruption was because they wanted the graft for themselves and lookee-lookee; I was right. Again.

Michelle Malkin has a good column but Victor Davis Hanson basically channeled everything I was going to write myself and then went farther in this Corner post:

Some of us have been warning that it was not healthy for the U.S. media to have deified rather than questioned Obama, especially given that they tore apart Bush, ridiculed Palin, and caricatured Hillary. And now we can see the results of their two years of advocacy rather than scrutiny.

We are quite literally after two weeks teetering on an Obama implosion—and with no Dick Morris to bail him out—brought on by messianic delusions of grandeur, hubris, and a strange naivete that soaring rhetoric and a multiracial profile can add requisite cover to good old-fashioned Chicago politicking.

First, there were the sermons on ethics, belied by the appointments of tax dodgers, crass lobbyists, and wheeler-dealers like Richardson—with the relish of the Blago tapes still to come. (And why does Richardson/Daschle go, but not Geithner?).

Second, was the "stimulus" (the euphemism for "borrow/print money") that was simply a way to go into debt for a generation to shower Democratic constinuencies with cash.

Then third, there were the inflated lectures on historic foreign policy to be made by the clumsy political novice who trashed his own country and his predecessor in the most ungracious manner overseas to a censured Saudi-run press organ (e.g., Bush is dictatorial, the Saudi king is courageous; Obama can mend bridges that America broke to aggrieved Muslims (apparently Tehran hostages, Rushdie, serial attacks in the 1990s, 9/11, Madrid, London never apparently occurred, and neither did feeding Somalis, saving Kuwait, protesting Chechnya, Bosnia/Kosovo, billions to Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinians, help in two Afghan wars, and on and on).

Fourth, there was the campaign rhetoric of Bush shredding the Constitution—FISA, Guantanamo, Patriot Act, Iraq, renditions, etc.—followed by "all that for now stays the same" inasmuch as we haven't ben hit in over seven years and can't risk another attack.

Fifth, Gibbs as press secretary is a Scott McClellan nightmare that won't go away, given his long McClellan-like relationship with Obama (McClellan should have been fired on day hour one on the job). Blaming Fox News for Obama's calamities is McClellan to the core and doesn't work. He already reminds me of Rev. Wright's undoing at the National Press Club—and he will get worse.

Six, Biden is being Biden. Already, he's ridiculed the chief justice, trashed the former VP, bragged on himself ad nauseam in Bidenesque weird ways, and it's only been two weeks.

And the result of all this?

At home, Obama is becoming laughable and laying the groundwork for the greatest conservative populist reaction since the Reagan Revolution.

Abroad, some really creepy people are lining up to test Obama's world view of "Bush did it/but I am the world": The North Koreans are readying their missiles; the Iranians are calling us passive, bragging on nukes and satellites; Russia is declaring missile defense is over and the Euros in real need of iffy Russian gas; Pakistanis say no more drone attacks (and then our friends the Indians say "shut up" about Kashmir and the Euros order no more 'buy American").

This is quite serious. I can't recall a similarly disastrous start in a half-century (far worse than Bill Clinton's initial slips). Obama immediately must lower the hope-and-change rhetoric, ignore Reid/Pelosi, drop the therapy, and accept the tragic view that the world abroad is not misunderstood but quite dangerous. And he must listen on foreign policy to his National Security Advisor, Billary, and Sec. of Defense. If he doesn't quit the messianic style and perpetual campaign mode, and begin humbly governing, then he will devolve into Carterism—angry that the once-fawning press betrayed him while we the people, due to our American malaise, are to blame.

Not included on VDH's litany is the non-response of FEMA to the ice storms in Kentucky. Where is someone crying out, "Barack Obama doesn't care about white people." on a telethon? Where are the news anchors flying in to condemn the lack of Federal response? [crickets]

The AP actually reported that people are calling The One "arrogant" and the NY Times called for Daschle's head. Now, I don't expect the Treason Media to suddenly go all Woodward and Bernstein on their creation, but the fact that they're already starting to take baby steps away from the bill of goods they cheerfully foisted upon the world - as chronicled in A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media - shows that despite being totally in the tank for this loser, they're trying to scrape together a tiny fig leaf of respectability.

Tax cheats, lobbyists, double-standards, massive pork, a bitch boy for Pelosi-Reid, pissing off our allies and emboldening our enemies - all this in ONLY TWO WEEKS! You're doing a heck of a job there, Barry!

1446 days to go. God help us all.

How Liberals Destroy Urban Youths In Ways The Klan Could Only Dream Of.

Liberals are racists. I know I say it a lot here, but it bears repeating. If you objectively look at the destruction of the black family after 40+ years of the "Great Society" and the pathetic state of the government education system (aka public schools), there is no other conclusion that can be drawn than liberals hate black people and will not rest until they are nothing more than slaves begging for alms from liberal politicians. Sure, it's a hateful and cynical way to work, but when your brutality is rewarded with a 95% support rate, why change? It works and for some reason, blacks keep voting for more lashes.

What prompts this sadly needed restatement of reality is Nolan Finley's Detroit News column "Detroit blew chance for school rescue", which reads in part:

With the Detroit Public Schools near disintegration, it ought to be noted that it's been five years since Plymouth philanthropist Bob Thompson was told to take his $200 million and get back to the suburbs.

Thompson, a retired road builder obsessed with spending his fortune to get urban children a high-quality education, ran into a political buzz saw when he offered to open 15 charter high schools in the city that would guarantee to graduate 90 percent of their students and send 90 percent of those graduates on to college.

Community activists denounced Thompson as a white meddler out to steal their children. They were joined in their absurdity by Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who threw their lot in with the teacher union.

The rejection of Thompson's millions became a national story of a city so seized by racial divisions it couldn't set them aside even to save its children.

So instead of a network of alternative schools that would have rescued roughly 5,000 students from the sinking DPS, look what Detroit has today:

A school district that fails to graduate 70 percent of its students; a school board that's fired two superintendents and an interim superintendent in four years; 18 of its 19 high schools on the failure list; and a fiscal meltdown.

Five years after Thompson was given the boot, Detroit is officially the worst big city school district in the nation and still sends more children to welfare and prison than it does to college.

Think about how different things might have been. Had the Thompson schools been built, they would be preparing to graduate their first class in the spring. Two thousand Detroit seniors would be making college plans. And Detroit's fast-fleeing middle class would have a reason to stay.

Yet no one has dialed up Thompson to apologize, to say they were wrong, to beg him for a second chance.

In fact, the governor and Democratic lawmakers are stubbornly blocking other Bob Thompsons from saving Detroit's children.

High-quality national charter school operators are lined up to get into the city. A group of Detroit teachers are pleading for the chance to remake a school under the successful Green Dot model.

But state law still traps students in hopeless public schools. Granholm refuses to lift the cap on charter schools, and the state House just passed a law protecting DPS from competition.

Nothing's changed in Detroit.

Well, a little has changed. Thug Maya Kwame Kilpatrick is in jail for multiple felonies and Jenny G. is lending her economic expertise - which has led Michigan to a nation-leading 10% unemployment rate - to Obama, showing just how clueless The One is about economics. But the schools still suck and the race war which has thrived since King Coleman Young rages on with any attempts to salvage the Detroit schools rebuffed as some racist plot by Whitey to boss the colored folk around.

Um....let's examine that concept: Someone wants to EDUCATE urban youths so that they can go to college and have successful lives and not end up on welfare or in prison and that's a BAD thing?!? Just because white people are suggesting that a good education, they're against it. And blacks keep voting for politicians who keep them slaves in exchange for sticking it to Whitey?!? WHY?!?!?

Boring Anti-Porn Scolds Are Boring,

"Pornification" is a word I first heard from Laura Ingraham and am hearing again today in this column by Mona Charen. While I'm sympathetic to their concerns about the coarsening of the culture and the casually blatant sexualization that's everywhere, the scolding tone of these sorts of screeds isn't going to convince anyone to come to their side. Heck, I want to visit 20 porn sites in retaliation right now! A snip:

The statistics are mind-numbing. Pamela Paul, author of "Pornified," reported that "Americans rent upwards of 800 million pornographic videos and DVDs per year. About one in five rented videos is porn. Men look at pornography online more than they look at any other subject. And 66 percent of 18-34 year old men visit a pornographic site every month."

They are not, Paul and others explained, looking at Playboy magazine-like images of naked women. Instead, they are descending into darker and darker realms where sadism, fetishes, and every imaginable oddity are proffered. Sex and violence are offered together. Women are presented in a degraded -- not to say disgusting -- fashion.

Surely only people with peculiar sexual tastes are drawn to this sort of thing, right? Not exactly. Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Norman Doidge, author of "The Brain That Changes Itself," noted that pornography use actually changes the brains of consumers. Like other addictions, pornography use breeds tolerance and the need for more intensity to get the desired result. He quoted Tom Wolfe's "I Am Charlotte Simmons," in which a college kid asks casually, "Anybody got porn?" He is told that there are magazines on the third floor. He responds, "I've built up a tolerance to magazines I need videos." Tolerance is the medically correct term, Doidge notes, which is why pornography becomes more and more graphic.

The men (and they are overwhelmingly men) who become hooked on this bilge are often miserable about it. They know that it affects their capacity to love and be loved by real women. As Doidge explained, "Pornographers promise healthy pleasure and a release from sexual tension, but what they often deliver is an addiction, tolerance, and an eventual decrease in pleasure. Paradoxically, the male patients I worked with often craved pornography but didn't like it." Hugh Hefner, the godfather of mainstream porn, apparently does not have normal sex with his many girlfriends. Despite the presence of up to seven comely young women in his bed at a time, he uses porn for sexual satisfaction. Think about that.

Uh-huh. I'm thinking that Hef is 1000-years-old and probably wishing he could just read a book in bed instead of having to be King Stud for a herd of dippy bimbos, but he's trapped into having to live a lifestyle he's outgrown.

Notably missing from these scolding articles is any mention of the WOMEN involved. The drunk bimbos flashing the "Girls Gone Wild" cameras aren't staring down the barrels of guns and not every porn performer is a sad junkie who was molested by their stepfather. By removing the suppliers and bashing the consumers, it makes you wonder how repressed Laura and Mona are and how that's manifesting itself in these screeds? Why they aren't saying, "Put your clothes on, ladies! Show some pride!"? Why just yell at the menfolk that they're destroying their families by looking at porn?

Granted, there are sick losers whose lives are messed up by this stuff, just as there are pedophiles and liberals who prey upon the powerless, but to take a "Reefer Madness" stance on it only backfires IMNSHO. It's ironic that these two scold liberals for trying to use isolated incidents like splashy gun incidents as an excuse to disarm the citizens, but use a few perverts to make it sound like they want burquas for women.

CFE: PC Gaming's Big Problems

THE BACKGROUND: Saw at Voodoo Extreme a link to a brief interview with Bioshock designer Ken Levine in which he said:

What is the industry's biggest mistake?

I'm a real believer in industrial Darwinism. It's hard for an industry to make a mistake because the market tends to be self-correcting...but I wish the industry could find a way to make PC gaming more broadly successful. There are so many challenges for PC gaming--the complications from systems specifications to the drivers--most people look at PC games and say, "What are you talking about?" It's a shame because as a gamer, I am never more comfortable than I am sitting with a mouse and keyboard two inches away from my monitor.

I posted at VE:

Unfortunately, he is right, though it's ironic that his own Bioshock was in the vanguard of PC titles that punished PC gamers with SecuROM shenanigans. It doesn't matter if he didn't want the crap the publisher ladled onto his game; the damage was done.

This has to be the worst year, problem-wise, I've seen in PC gaming in my decade of gaming. I am so fed up, my purchase ratio has swung from about 50-50 PC-to-console to 90-10 in favor of console. Since I buy 90% of my console titles used all PC games new, my shift has not only meant less money for PC game pubs, but console title pubs, too.

Let's count some of the problems of the past year:

* Crysis - A year later, it's still a slide show on the majority of gamers' rigs unless they turn the eye candy down which defeats the purpose of this boring game. When every game you play EXCEPT Crysis will run with all the sliders to the right, something is desperately wrong in the devs heads.

* Gears of War (PC) - It takes longer to install (~45 minutes) than it took me to unlock Half-Life 2 on the disastrous launch day. That's time spent NOT PLAYING. Toss in the widespread bug that leads to all your saved progress being randomly deleted - it happened to a friend after he'd put in many hours and me after about an hour - and it doesn't matter if they added levels.

* Unreal Tournament 3 (aka Gears of Unreal) - Epic sodomized PC gamers a second time by making the PS3 their primary focus and showing utter contempt for the PC, starting with the interface. They could've hired a 17-year-old off a mod forum and paid him a couple cases of Bawls and a trip to a strip club and gotten a better interface in a couple of days. There is no reason why they couldn't have just slapped the UT2K4 front end onto UT3 other than sheer laziness. I'm also pissed that the game crashed every 20 minutes when it worked and now doesn't work at all, but what I saw told me I'd wasted $60 buying the CE on day one. If I'd waited a few months, I could've gotten the same for less than half price.

* Fallout 3 - While I've only had a few crashes and one funny glitch I captured and posted to YouTube, others are having tons of problems. Bethesda also hasn't released the mod tools which made a PC purchase the logical choice. WTF? PC gamers get screwed again. As an extra kicker, when my cable was out and I couldn't log into the Live network, I was unable to play offline with my saved game! WTF is that about?!?

* GTA IV (PC) - A glance at the front page of VE shows had badly botched this port has been. I played GTA III/VC/SA on the PC, but bought another Xbox 360 to play GTA IV when it came out. I was likely to buy the PC version to get the replay editor and higher rez quality, but it appears they've lost another sale.

* Vista Compatibility with Older Games - It's too hit and miss. I can't get Red Alert 2 to run at all and that was a Win2K-compatible title. Blade Runner had graphical corruption until I found out that if you alt-tab back to the Desktop then return to the game, it'll be fine. Your new hot-rod computer is less capable than one from the turn of the century.

* Impulse - Stardock took all their DRM-free goodwill and torched it by releasing a Steam-wannabe client that works fine on WinXP and refuses to run on Vista. (Hey, maybe after it's out a couple more years, they'll learn to code for it.)

* Games For Windows Live - The anti-Xbox Live which showed that all the brains were in the console department. All M$ needed to do was buy X-Fire and rebrand it as an integrated buddy list/game updater/game launcher. How fraking hard would it have been to do that? About as hard as putting a decent interface on UT3, I suppose.

* The Addiction to Punitive DRM - I believe that piracy has received its biggest boost as a direct result of the outspoken attitude that the paying customers are actually predatory thieves robbing developers and publishers of their just rewards. Huh?!? Install limits, irremovable DRM schemes, we know the drill. People who honestly took their money to the store to buy the game were punished for the sins of the real thieves and after getting slapped in the face over and over decided that if they were going to be treated as if they were guilty of something, they may as well save $50 and commit the crime they're being suspected of. How many people downloaded Spore just to stick it to EA? How many sales were lost because people won't pay to be insulted?

The combination of buggy, half-assed games and lousy support and insulting DRM is killing my love of PC gaming. For every Witcher EE (new, improved, DRM-free, and cheap) have been several pooch screws. I have spent at least five hours researching my UT3 problems, un/reinstalling, updating drivers, downloading patches, rebooting and watching it lock up and fail again. Every hour spent futzing with beta drivers for the newest games is an hour not spent PLAYING! (I want to know are these games being developed when the necessary drivers and hardware aren't available until after the game has shipped?!?!?)

I'm a fairly savvy wirehead and while I'm searching the back alleys of teh Intarwebz looking for fixes for my problems, I often pause to wonder WTF civilians who just want to game would do when confronted with the myriad problems PC gamers suffer thru as par for the course? How the hell can we proselytize PC gaming as being a superior experience when it clearly isn't? How can we say to someone, "No, you don't want to buy a $300 Xbox 360 that will play games like Gears of War 2 and Dead Space with stunning graphics, has great online features, and the ability to stream Netflix to your 50" HDTV. You want to spend $1000 and have to constantly update your drivers for every game and not be able to lend or sell the games you're done with and if there's a bug or incompatibility spend hours trying to figure out why it's not working. Hey, why are you looking at me like I'm crazy?"

If PC gaming is dying, it's because it's bleeding to death from all the bullet holes in its feet. Before anyone retorts that it's more fun on the PC because you get to tweak and mod in ways that consoles can't, tell me what that has to do with my complaints that if you just want to play games and have fun. Spending hours monkeying with your systems should be a CHOICE, not a requirement. Most people would rather finish a game than try to get it running in the first place.

The Cluelessness of Michigan Mirrors the Ignorance of a Nation.

Two years ago, Michigan re-elected Jennifer Granholm to a second term as Governor despite her failed leadership in her first term that kept the state in a one-state Depression, with unemployment running over 2.5% higher than the national rate. When she was first elected, she was such a rising star, there were noises that the Constitution would have to be amended to allow this golden goddess the opportunity to run for President. (She's Canadian.) After a couple of years, she'd submarined the state so thoroughly that no one ever mentioned it again.

Her opponent was Peter DeVos (of the Amway family) and he was a boring white businessman with a proven record of corporate success who just didn't connect with voters. (Sounds a lot like Mitt Romney, no?) Banking her reliable union support, Granholm was re-elected and continued driving Michigan into the dirt. After four years of utter failure, the voters rewarded her with four more years - the first half have been more of the same.

Since the Democrats took over Congress two years ago, the housing market has collapsed thanks to the Dems blocking of Fannie/Freddie regulation; the economy has tanked; fuel prices doubled (and fell back only when people stopped driving); and Congress' approval rating is in SINGLE DIGITS, less than a third of the much-slagged Dubya. The country's dire economic straits are mostly thanks to the liberal Democrats who are the puppets of the Big Money on Wall Street and what have the voters done?

THEY'VE SENT EVEN MORE OF THEM TO WASHINGTON!!!

If you went to a restaurant a couple of times and got sick with food poisoning each time, would you go back again AND take some friends with you or would you find someplace else to eat? (Duh.) Despite the facts, an ill-informed and frightened* electorate has gone back for seconds. If they end up choking and/or starving to death as a result, what will they do then? Vote for thirds?


* It's funny how the knock on Team Dubya by the Left was that they were using fear (of terrorism) to score votes, only to see the Left use economic fear to scare voters into rushing into Uncle Sam's smothering clutches. On NBC News' coverage, they proclaimed it as a triumph of "hope over fear". Are you f*cking kidding me? They used the public's legitimate fears over the economy as their ticket to power. That the Dems are the cause of the crisis is just the perverse cherry on top of the sh*t sundae.

Why the Hell Are Conservatives Acting As If Obama Will "Govern From the Center"?!?

I've noticed in coverage, mostly on the radio, that a odd amount of people who should know a hell of a lot better have been saying that Obama would probably not govern as a hard-Left radical fascist Marxist - as his lifelong record shows he is - but would push back against the liberal instincts of Pelosi and Reid and the rising tide of Democrats in Congress, who, if trends continue, will claim a huge mandate to impose massive socialism on this country.

If I may ask a rhetorical question: WHAT THE F*CK ARE YOU MORONS SMOKING?!? BASED ON WHAT CAN YOU PREDICT THIS?!?!?

Bill Clinton came in with well over half of the voters having chosen different candidates and acted as if he was crowned Sun King and governed with great hubris (HillaryCare anyone?) and promptly lost Congress to Newt and the Republicans in 1994. These pundits believe that Obama would not make the same mistake, but if the Dems rout the way it's looking now, what restraint would he need to show? With a Treason Media looking to protect their Anointed One after they got him on the throne and actively cheering any fascism he wishes to implement, why wouldn't he put his life's radical ideology into practice?

CFE: The Triumph of Liberal Branding

Andrew Stuttaford has a post on The Corner entitled "Elites and Their Choices" which observes:

Assuming the worst (but, of course, hoping for the best) for today, as one must, one of the fascinating questions to come revolves around what's next for Sarah Palin, both as a political figure in her own right, and for what her future role will say about the evolution of the GOP. We've already had a few skirmishes here on the direction the GOP might take (and there will be more elsewhere), but when I read this comment by David Brooks in an article running in this week's New York magazine, I don't feel very optimistic about the tone of what lies ahead:

Others maintain that the damage to her image has been so enormous that it is essentially irreparable. And still others contend that she is simply too dim to be a major figure in our national life. When I asked Times columnist David Brooks if he thought that Palin could be the Republican nominee in 2012, he said, “I don’t.” When I asked why, he answered with a chuckle, “I just don’t think the human capital is there, to put it politely.”

Politely? Meanwhile, on a not entirely unrelated topic, I saw this interesting piece by Christopher Caldwell in the London Spectator:

The Democrats are now the partisan home of the upper crust of the American meritocracy, of the credentialled classes, the classes that believe every endeavour is some variety of IQ test. USA Today did a review of fund-raising data and discovered that Obama dominates fundraising among the leaders of ‘finance, insurance, real estate, health, communications and law’. The Democratic party is the vehicle through which, after a populist interlude, the governing classes are proposing to take their country back. Obama is a restoration candidate but that doesn’t mean he has a plan.

Food for thought.

So much for that "Party of the Little Guy" crap they've been peddling, too.

I wrote Stuttaford a note:

Regarding the execrable David Brooks sneering at Gov. Palin - that "Gov." meaning "GOVERNOR", not "lick-spittle brown-nosing NY Times lackey" - as being too stupid for his lofty perch: What the jeering elitists never explain is how this dim-witted, Jesus-freak, redneck, breeder cow managed to take down her own party's old boy network (in a place where old boy networks are surely tighter than most) and become the most popular governor in the Republic. That she was able to climb the ladder from the school board to the state house without benefit of money, connections, or celebrity should be testament to some sort of intellectual acumen. That supposed "conservatives" like Brooks can't resist defecating on her and her unlettered ilk while liberal Democrat Obama-supporter Camile Paglia recognizes her strengths shows how pitiful the "pseudo-cons" (or CINOs) are these days as they try to curry favor with those on the Left whom they assume will be their masters.

The reason the "elites" and "intellectuals" are liberals is because liberalism has succeeded in branding itself as the "Smart Folks' Ideology." Liberals are smarter. Liberals are nicer. Liberals are more diverse. Liberals are more tolerant. Unlike those backward superstitious racist sexist bigoted homophobes (i.e. conservatives), liberals are inherently better than the rest. Look at all the pretty celebrities and rich people; they're liberals. Join us! It's the same thing that makes people pay a premium price for Apple products - they're perceived to be better, cooler, the choice of the Eloi, not the Morlocks. Forget "Pepsi: The Choice of the New Generation"; it's "Liberalism: Because You're Smarter Than Them!"

I stumbled into this insight while debatng with a friend and she threw the argument at me that since most college graduates are liberals, then clearly liberals are smarter. (She's an artist who probably doesn't know another non-liberal outside of me. If we weren't old family friends, she'd probably never associate with my kind.) Looking around, I realized that most liberals can't articulate their superiority without using that in the definition (e.g. "Liberals are smarter because they are smarter.") or denigrating conservatives (e.g. "I'm liberal because you stupid people think Jesus rode dinosaurs 2000 years ago.") That they lack the intellectual and epistemological curiosity to notice that there is no actual diversity or tolerance in their ranks is a sign of irony-deficiency that no multi-vitamin can compensate for.

Hypocrisy is the coin of the liberal realm, but they envision themselves to be more highly-evolved and thus entitled to reign over the benighted proletariat.

Damn straight!

This Guy Isn't Looking To Stay Employable After Tuesday, Is He?

Never heard of this bloke, but a commenter at Malkin's crib put this link up. Check it out (unless you're an angry black liberal Obama voter - which is several times redundant, I know.)

"The least qualified candidate in American history — at one of the most dangerous points in history."

Looking around at the vacant eyes of clueless people actually admitting that they stood and applauded The One's infomercial last night, I feel like I've taken crazy pills. These people are so ignorant that they don't even know that every vote for Obama is a bullet in the head of the security of the world. Thomas Sowell's sage column would pass right in one ear and out the other on these dolts.

Some elections are routine, some are important, and some are historic. If Senator John McCain wins this election, it will probably go down in history as routine. But if Senator Barack Obama wins, it is more likely to be historic — and catastrophic.

Once the election is over, the glittering generalities of rhetoric and style will mean nothing. Everything will depend on performance in facing huge challenges, domestic and foreign.

Performance is where Barack Obama has nothing to show for his political career, either in Illinois or in Washington.

Policies that he proposes under the banner of “change” are almost all policies that have been tried repeatedly in other countries — and failed repeatedly in other countries.

[snip]

Higher taxes to “spread the wealth around,” as Obama puts it? The idea of redistributing wealth has turned into the reality of redistributing poverty, in countries where wealth has fled and the production of new wealth has been stifled by a lack of incentives.

Economic disasters, however, may pale by comparison with the catastrophe of Iran with nuclear weapons. Glib rhetoric about Iran being “a small country,” as Obama called it, will be a bitter irony for Americans who will have to live in the shadow of a nuclear threat that cannot be deterred, as that of the Soviet Union could be, by the threat of a nuclear counter-attack.

Suicidal fanatics cannot be deterred. If they are willing to die and we are not, then we are at their mercy — and they have no mercy. Moreover, once they get nuclear weapons, that is a situation which cannot be reversed, either in this generation or in generations to come.

Is this the legacy we wish to leave our children and grandchildren, by voting on the basis of style and symbolism, rather than substance?

If Barack Obama thinks that such a catastrophe can be avoided by sitting down and talking with the leaders of Iran, then he is repeating a fallacy that helped bring on World War II.

In a nuclear age, one country does not have to send troops to occupy another country in order to conquer it. Osama bin Laden...threatened retaliation against places in the United States that voted for George W. Bush. But he didn’t have nuclear weapons to back up that threat — yet.

America has never been a conquered country, so it may be very hard for most Americans even to conceive what that can mean. After France was conquered in 1940, it was reduced to turning over some of its own innocent citizens to the Nazis to kill, just because those citizens were Jewish.

Do you think our leaders wouldn’t do that? Not even if the alternative was to see New York and Los Angeles go up in mushroom clouds? If I were Jewish, I wouldn’t bet my life on that.

What the Middle East fanatics want is not just our resources or even our lives, but our humiliation first, in whatever sadistic ways they can think of. Their lust for humiliation has already been repeatedly demonstrated in their videotaped beheadings that find such an eager market in the Middle East.

None of this can be prevented by glib talk, but only by character, courage and decisive actions — none of which Barack Obama has ever demonstrated.

I've given up trying to discuss the issues with these people because there is no room for facts and truth in their worlds. Their lives, souls, hearts and minds (such as they are) are devoted to Dear Leader and only when the jackboot of totalitarian fascism crushes their throats will they begin to understand just how gullible they were.

And, yes, I will be saying I told them so. I will laugh at their misery because they will have been the ones who brought it down on their empty heads. This assumes, naturally, that I haven't been already interred in the Gulag by that time.

Why a Speechwriter For Obama, Edwards, and Clinton is Voting For McCain.

How vile, extreme and radical have the fascist Democrats gotten? So bad that Wendy Button, a speechwriter for Obama, Edwards, and Clinton, has kissed her party goodbye and will vote for McCain:

Since I started writing speeches more than ten years ago, I have always believed in the Democratic Party. Not anymore. Not after the election of 2008. This transformation has been swift and complete and since I’m a woman writing in the election of 2008, “very emotional.”

See campaigns get complicated when you’ve written for so many Democrats. Not only had I written for Senator Edwards, but I had also been Senator Hillary Clinton’s speechwriter. Senator Joe Biden is a “good looking” man and his care after my father almost died from an aneurysm is the kind of kindness you never forget. When I saw Edwards at a traffic light in D.C. about a year after our meeting, he asked for help and I did and it was an honor to help him with his concession speech. And when the primary ended, it was a privilege to help Michelle Obama with a stump speech, be considered as a speechwriter for the V.P. nominee again, and send friends in Chicago ideas until the financial crisis hit. This is what the Democratic Party has been for me; it’s family. Now, it doesn’t even feel like a distant cousin...[T]hat faith was dashed when I saw that someone had raided the Caligula set and planted the old columns at Invesco Field.

The final straw came the other week when Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (a.k.a Joe the Plumber) asked a question about higher taxes for small businesses. Instead of celebrating his aspirations, they were mocked. He wasn’t “a real plumber,” and “They’re fighting for Joe the Hedge-Fund manager,” and the patronizing, “I’ve got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber.”

Having worked in politics, I know that absolutely none of this is on the level. This back and forth is posturing, a charade, and a political game. These lines are what I refer to as “hooker lines”—a sure thing to get applause and the press to scribble as if they’re reporting meaningful news.

As the nation slouches toward disaster, the level of political discourse is unworthy of this moment in history. We have Republicans raising Ayers and Democrats fostering ageism with “erratic” and jokes about Depends. Sexism. Racism. Ageism and maybe some Socialism have all made their ugly cameos in election 2008. It’s not inspiring. Perhaps this is why I found the initial mocking of Joe so offensive and I realized an old line applied: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.”

The party I believed in wouldn’t look down on working people under any circumstance. And Joe the Plumber is right. This is the absolutely worst time to raise taxes on anyone: the rich, the middle class, the poor, small businesses and corporations.

Our economy is in the tank for many complicated reasons, especially because people don’t have enough money. So let them keep it. Let businesses keep it so they can create jobs and stay here and weather this storm. And yet, the Democratic ideology remains the same. Our approach to problems—big government solutions paid for by taxing the rich and big and smaller companies—is just as tired and out of date as trickle down economics. How about a novel approach that simply finds a sane way to stop the bleeding?

That’s not exactly the philosophy of a Democrat. Not only has this party belittled working people in this campaign from Joe the Plumber to the bitter comments, it has also been part of tearing down two female candidates....Really, front-page news is how the Republican National Committee paid for Governor Sarah Palin’s wardrobe? Where’s the op-ed about how Obama tucks in his shirt when he plays basketball or how Senator Biden buttons the top button on his golf shirt?

Governor Palin and I don’t agree on a lot of things, mostly social issues. But I have grown to appreciate the Governor. I was one of those initial skeptics and would laugh at the pictures. Not anymore. When someone takes on a corrupt political machine and a sitting governor, that is not done by someone with a low I.Q. or a moral core made of tissue paper. When someone fights her way to get scholarships and work her way through college even in a jagged line, that shows determination and humility you can’t learn from reading Reinhold Niebuhr. When a mother brings her son with special needs onto the national stage with love, honesty, and pride, that gives hope to families like mine as my older brother lives with a mental disability. And when someone can sit on a stage during the Sarah Palin rap on Saturday Night Live, put her hands in the air and watch someone in a moose costume get shot—that’s a sign of both humor and humanity.

Has she made mistakes? Of course, she’s human too. But the attention paid to her mistakes has been unprecedented compared to Senator Obama’s “57 states” remarks or Senator Biden using a version of the Samuel Johnson quote, “There’s nothing like a hanging in the morning to focus a man’s thoughts.”

I was dead wrong about the surge and thought it would be a disaster. Senator John McCain led when many of us were ready to quit. Yet we march on as if nothing has changed, wedded to an old plan, and that too is a long way from the Democratic Party.

I can no longer justify what this party has done and can’t dismiss the treatment of women and working people as just part of the new kind of politics. It’s wrong and someone has to say that. And also say that the Democratic Party’s talking points—that Senator John McCain is just four more years of the same and that he’s President Bush—are now just hooker lines that fit a very effective and perhaps wave-winning political argument…doesn’t mean they’re true. After all, he is the only one who’s worked in a bipartisan way on big challenges.

Wendy must surely realize that she has marked herself for destruction, which is why her brave testimonial should be heard by those "inertia Democrats" - those who vote Dem just because that's what they've always done, unaware of what the modern fascist-controlled Dem party has become - who going to pull the lever for Barry O'Bama just because he's the opposite of party of Dubya and the Stupids.

The Obama Temptation

Mark R. Levin posted this very cogent and sobering commentary Saturday night about how he can't believe how many people, supposedly intelligent and nominally conservative, are supporting what is clearly the most radical and fascist candidate to ever run as a major party candidate.

I've been thinking this for a while so I might as well air it here. I honestly never thought we'd see such a thing in our country - not yet anyway - but I sense what's occurring in this election is a recklessness and abandonment of rationality that has preceded the voluntary surrender of liberty and security in other places. I can't help but observe that even some conservatives are caught in the moment as their attempts at explaining their support for Barack Obama are unpersuasive and even illogical. And the pull appears to be rather strong. Ken Adelman, Doug Kmiec, and others, reach for the usual platitudes in explaining themselves but are utterly incoherent. Even non-conservatives with significant public policy and real world experiences, such as Colin Powell and Charles Fried, find Obama alluring but can't explain themselves in an intelligent way.

There is a cult-like atmosphere around Barack Obama, which his campaign has carefully and successfully fabricated, which concerns me. The messiah complex. Fainting audience members at rallies. Special Obama flags and an Obama presidential seal. A graphic with the portrayal of the globe and Obama's name on it, which adorns everything from Obama's plane to his street literature. Young school children singing songs praising Obama. Teenagers wearing camouflage outfits and marching in military order chanting Obama's name and the professions he is going to open to them. An Obama world tour, culminating in a speech in Berlin where Obama proclaims we are all citizens of the world. I dare say, this is ominous stuff.

Even the media are drawn to the allure that is Obama. Yes, the media are liberal. Even so, it is obvious that this election is different. The media are open and brazen in their attempts to influence the outcome of this election. I've never seen anything like it. Virtually all evidence of Obama's past influences and radicalism — from Jeremiah Wright to William Ayers — have been raised by non-traditional news sources. The media's role has been to ignore it as long as possible, then mention it if they must, and finally dismiss it and those who raise it in the first place. It's as if the media use the Obama campaign's talking points — its preposterous assertions that Obama didn't hear Wright from the pulpit railing about black liberation, whites, Jews, etc., that Obama had no idea Ayers was a domestic terrorist despite their close political, social, and working relationship, etc. — to protect Obama from legitimate and routine scrutiny. And because journalists have also become commentators, it is hard to miss their almost uniform admiration for Obama and excitement about an Obama presidency. So in the tank are the media for Obama that for months we've read news stories and opinion pieces insisting that if Obama is not elected president it will be due to white racism. And, of course, while experience is crucial in assessing Sarah Palin's qualifications for vice president, no such standard is applied to Obama's qualifications for president. (No longer is it acceptable to minimize the work of a community organizer.) Charles Gibson and Katie Couric sought to humiliate Palin. They would never and have never tried such an approach with Obama.

But beyond the elites and the media, my greatest concern is whether this election will show a majority of the voters susceptible to the appeal of a charismatic demagogue. This may seem a harsh term to some, and no doubt will to Obama supporters, but it is a perfectly appropriate characterization. Obama's entire campaign is built on class warfare and human envy. The "change" he peddles is not new. We've seen it before. It is change that diminishes individual liberty for the soft authoritarianism of socialism. It is a populist appeal that disguises government mandated wealth redistribution as tax cuts for the middle class, falsely blames capitalism for the social policies and government corruption (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) that led to the current turmoil in our financial markets, fuels contempt for commerce and trade by stigmatizing those who run successful small and large businesses, and exploits human imperfection as a justification for a massive expansion of centralized government. Obama's appeal to the middle class is an appeal to the "the proletariat," as an infamous philosopher once described it, about which a mythology has been created. Rather than pursue the American Dream, he insists that the American Dream has arbitrary limits, limits Obama would set for the rest of us — today it's $250,000 for businesses and even less for individuals. If the individual dares to succeed beyond the limits set by Obama, he is punished for he's now officially "rich." The value of his physical and intellectual labor must be confiscated in greater amounts for the good of the proletariat (the middle class). And so it is that the middle class, the birth-child of capitalism, is both celebrated and enslaved — for its own good and the greater good. The "hope" Obama represents, therefore, is not hope at all. It is the misery of his utopianism imposed on the individual.

Unlike past Democrat presidential candidates, Obama is a hardened ideologue. He's not interested in playing around the edges. He seeks "fundamental change," i.e., to remake society. And if the Democrats control Congress with super-majorities led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, he will get much of what he demands.

The question is whether enough Americans understand what's at stake in this election and, if they do, whether they care. Is the allure of a charismatic demagogue so strong that the usually sober American people are willing to risk an Obama presidency? After all, it ensnared Adelman, Kmiec, Powell, Fried, and numerous others. And while America will certainly survive, it will do so, in many respects, as a different place.

The Treason Media has worked diligently to install this Marxist as our national Fuhrer and fully anticipate receiving the beneficence of the Messiah in return for their loyal service as stenographers to the fascist elites and mythologizers of The One.

That the general public is more focused on who wins "Dancing with the Stars" or "American Idol" is part of the problem, but it's not as if the Treason Media has been putting the facts of the fascism they're being instructed to vote for under the rubric of "CHANGE! HOPE!" The truth is out there in the Blogosphere and on talk radio, but is that enough to balance the vast left-wing media leviathan?

But even with ignorant and apathetic voters brainwashed by a dishonest media, huge swaths of blame must be placed on Dubya and the Stupid Party for their feeble, incoherent, liberal, inarticulate muddling of just about everything in the past 8 years other than cutting taxes (without which we would've already been in a Depression) and defending America (which is the President's f*cking job, not that The One will do it!) The Stupid Party brand is worthless other than standing for a less-liberal, non-fascist flava of government.

"Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights? "

I'm reading Orson Scott Card's sci-fi classic Ender's Game, so it's an timely coincidence that he has called out the reprehensible bias of the Treason Media.

I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.

This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.

It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.

[snip]

This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.

Furthermore, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were making political contributions to the very members of Congress who were allowing them to make irresponsible loans. (Though why quasi-federal agencies were allowed to do so baffles me. It's as if the Pentagon were allowed to contribute to the political campaigns of Congressmen who support increasing their budget.)

[snip]

I have no doubt that if these facts had pointed to the Republican Party or to John McCain as the guilty parties, you would be treating it as a vast scandal. "Housing-gate," no doubt. Or "Fannie-gate."

Instead, it was Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, both Democrats, who denied that there were any problems, who refused Bush administration requests to set up a regulatory agency to watch over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who were still pushing for these agencies to go even further in promoting sub-prime mortgage loans almost up to the minute they failed.

As Thomas Sowell points out in a TownHall.com essay entitled "Do Facts Matter?": "Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury."

These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was ... the Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was ... the Republican Party.

Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to account for her lie. Instead, you criticized Republicans who took offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout!

What? It's not the liar, but the victims of the lie who are to blame?

[snip]

If you who produce our local daily paper actually had any principles, you would be pounding this story, because the prosperity of all Americans was put at risk by the foolish, short-sighted, politically selfish, and possibly corrupt actions of leading Democrats, including Obama.

If you who produce our local daily paper had any personal honor, you would find it unbearable to let the American people believe that somehow Republicans were to blame for this crisis.

There are precedents. Even though President Bush and his administration never said that Iraq sponsored or was linked to 9/11, you could not stand the fact that Americans had that misapprehension — so you pounded us with the fact that there was no such link. (Along the way, you created the false impression that Bush had lied to them and said that there was a connection.)

If you had any principles, then surely right now, when the American people are set to blame President Bush and John McCain for a crisis they tried to prevent, and are actually shifting to approve of Barack Obama because of a crisis he helped cause, you would be laboring at least as hard to correct that false impression.

Your job, as journalists, is to tell the truth. That's what you claim you do, when you accept people's money to buy or subscribe to your paper.

But right now, you are consenting to or actively promoting a big fat lie — that the housing crisis should somehow be blamed on Bush, McCain, and the Republicans. You have trained the American people to blame everything bad — even bad weather — on Bush, and they are responding as you have taught them to.

If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth — even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate.

Because that's what honorable people do. Honest people tell the truth even when they don't like the probable consequences. That's what honesty means . That's how trust is earned.

[snip]

You will also tell the truth about John McCain: that he tried, as a Senator, to do what it took to prevent this crisis. You will tell the truth about President Bush: that his administration tried more than once to get Congress to regulate lending in a responsible way.

This was a Congress-caused crisis, beginning during the Clinton administration, with Democrats leading the way into the crisis and blocking every effort to get out of it in a timely fashion.

If you at our local daily newspaper continue to let Americans believe — and vote as if — President Bush and the Republicans caused the crisis, then you are joining in that lie.

If you do not tell the truth about the Democrats — including Barack Obama — and do so with the same energy you would use if the miscreants were Republicans — then you are not journalists by any standard.

You're just the public relations machine of the Democratic Party, and it's time you were all fired and real journalists brought in, so that we can actually have a news paper in our city.

Go read the whole thing as I had to chop a ton of stuff to get it to a too-long length here. BTW, Card is a Democrat. (Not for long with that attitude; they'll surely see to that.)

Yesterday on Dennis Miller's radio show, Mike Allen of the Politico made a Freudian slip and used the word "we're" to describe what the press and Democrats have learned and are going to do. When Dennis asked if he wanted to leave the impression that he was a Democrat, Allen got really huffy and promptly bailed off the show. Dennis was far too contrite and felt he had put Allen on the spot, but Allen was bleating that Politico was "middle of the road", a description of where they were a couple of months ago, not the hard-Left Obama cheering section they are now.

The Treason Media's willingness to act as Goebbels to Obama and the fascist Dems is the untold story of this Election, but they'll never tell it. Why should they? The Big Lie is working, isn't it?

Simpering Faux-"Conservative" Morons Need To Drown Themselves!

Laura Ingraham just had Heather McDonald on (UPDATE: Hear it here) to take her to task for her anti-Moose-Slayer droolings. Mickey Duh kept whining that - and I'm only slightly paraphrasing - she didn't think Palin knew anything and never said anything that made any sense and needed to stay home with her Downs baby and her daughter's pregnancy should disqualify her and blah-blah-woof-woof. When challenged to name one policy that she (McD) was closer to Obama than Palin about, she kept whining about Palin. When asked about Obama's disastrously socialist economic schemes, McD whined that she hasn't heard Palin say anything either. SHE COULDN'T ANSWER THE FRIGGING QUESTION!!

This is the mind rot that's popping up in more and more former supposed conservatives - gleefully reported by the Treason Media. They have clearly bought into the elitism of the Manhattan circles they traverse and despise anyone without the proper credentials and bona fides. The idea of citizen serving their country for a brief period is lost on them in favor of an Anointed Holy Class of High Priests of Government.

You know, the type of bozos that have pushed this nation to the brink of the abyss. Yeah, we need more of that. Idiots.

Will The "Wrong Track" Numbers Lead To The Death Track?

Heard on the news this evening that 90% of the people surveyed feel the country is on the wrong track. Naturally, this was spun by CBS News as an endorsement for jumbo huge Obama and fascist Dem victories in three weeks. The question is, however, why? Why should dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs automatically result in further rewards for the party actually responsible?

First off, DUBYA IS NOT ON THE BALLOT!!! If you think Dubya has been a total tool - I put him in the near-total tool column - so what? He's not going to be around so why are you automatically going to vote for Obama? Because the economy is in crisis and the markets have melted down? Well, this decline in markets and explosion in foreclosures and fuel prices started when the Dems took over in Jan. 2007.

The Dems are on record (and on tape) refusing to allow regulation of Freddie and Fannie in 2005 and their ties to ACORN and the bad loans that racial grievance group forced banks to make are well-known to people who aren't relying on the Treason Media for the facts. Just about everything that's gone massively wrong can be laid squarely at the feet of the Dems but they are potentially going to have such a rout that they will be unopposable for anything they wish to jam down the throats of their subjects. Crushing taxes to "spread the wealth", socialized health care, taxpayer funded eugenics and abortion, stifling of unapproved speech, and on and on, a multitude of horrors will be visited on the people who are blindly voting for the gaseous lies of "CHANGE!" and "HOPE!"

Why?

Because they're being told to punish the not guilty and reward those who caused this debacle by a Treason Media who are Goebbels-like in their eagerness to propagandize for Fuhrer Obama and keep people ignorant of the inconvenient truths.

But as nice as it would be to blame the TM for not getting the truth out, the bottom line blame will fall on the stupid heads of Dubya and McCain. I didn't vote for Dubya in '04 because he couldn't explain the global war on Islamofascism and he was rolled by the Left over and over. Now he's unable to explain what's happening with the economy - he's an MBA? Really? - and as a result the Dems who caused the problem (e.g. Barney Frank, Chris Dodd) get to stand there and pose as saviors while he mumbles around. McCain has let two debates come and go without providing the straight truth because he's still trying to match his liberal friends in the panderfest.

Is the country on the wrong track? Absolutely. Dubya and the Stupid Party have cluelessly bumbled into driving people into the arms of the fascist Democrats. If asked directly, people would reject voting away freedoms and values, but they've been frustrated to the point where the idea "How much worse could this Obama guy be compared to what we've had for the past eight years?" doesn't sound too facile. It sounds like a legitimate question. But since they don't have the information necessary to realize the answer is, "Horrifyingly worse. Nation-destroying worse. Soviet Amerika bad.", they're liable to blindly vote for the Dems.

And this formerly great nation would be condemned to die a horrible death.

Most people don't choose a harmful course if they're informed of the risks. The American voters are poorly informed and this is no accident - the Left and their propaganda forces in the Treason Media have smothered the facts, but the two people who have megaphone's big enough to counter these lies - Dubya and McCain - haven't stepped up to get the truth out there. McCain is such a spineless twerp, totally cowed by the TM who are threatening to smear him as a racist, that he will likely pass on sounding the warning about Obama in his final debate.

Word is McCain wants to lose with honor. If that is so, he should quit now and get up against the wall and put on his blindfold because that's where traitors go when justice is served. If he goes down to this smiling fascist like a punk bitch, he is no better than a collaborator to the genocide of freedom that will result. The irony of this American Hero™ may become a hapless accidental traitor would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic. McCain keeps bleating, "Fight with me." You first, beyatch.

“The fix is in, and it’s working…”

In case you're in denial about the Treason Media - and I didn't slap that moniker on these f*ckers because I was trying to be cute - being wholly committed to covering up Barack Obama's shady and questionable past in order to run out the clock and install this Marxist and his fascist fellow traveler Dems into total control of the government, take a gander at this note cross-posted several places:

A READER AT A MAJOR NEWSROOM EMAILS: “Off the record, every suspicion you have about MSM being in the tank for O is true. We have a team of 4 people going thru dumpsters in Alaska and 4 in arizona. Not a single one looking into Acorn, Ayers or Freddiemae. Editor refuses to publish anything that would jeopardize election for O, and betting you dollars to donuts same is true at NYT, others. People cheer when CNN or NBC run another Palin-mocking but raising any reasonable inquiry into obama is derided or flat out ignored. The fix is in, and its working.”

The Anchoress adds (emphasis and links in original):

I have a couple friends who work in the MSM, too, and one of them tells me the newsroom is (exact words) “unbelievably cavalier” about any complaints viewers register about their reports, what they ignore, their bias or the way they edit Republicans vs. the way the treat Dems. “Cavalier” as in the fix is in and they don’t even have to pretend to care what half the country thinks or wants.

I suppose this is why print media and the press in general don’t care about their tumbling revenues; when The Pelosi gets the regulated internet and restricted Congress that she wants, and Obama gets his thugs and his Justice Department monitoring, intimidating and shutting down alternative media (and the dissenting voices we’ve been told are “patriotic” when a Republican is in the White House) the incestuous mainstream press will go back to being the only game in town. Pravda West.

(Shrug) everyone sees it coming; the voters don’t seem to want to stop it.

I’m praying. It’s all I can do.

Now, liberals don't care because they want to win and all's fair when power is on the line, but everyone - that's EVERYONE regardless of political orientation - should be distressed that the Treason Media is so openly contemptuous of their charge and trust to the public they used to serve.

We shouldn't have to go to Fox News to get the conservative side of a story that the entire ABC/NBC/CBS/CNN/MSNBC/NY Times/WaPo leviathan buries because it's not in line with their agendas. There shouldn't be a need for separate channels for one point of view or the other. It used to be that we'd get the five Ws from the press, but we just get them trying to get Dubya, the consequences be damned.

I almost fell off the couch to see "Saturday Night Live" actually mention Obama's felon pal Tony Rezko in their debate sketch last weekend.



What does it say when a comedy show will mention Obama's criminal pals but that same network's TWO news operations pretend it doesn't exist? The laughter was muted at the reference, probably because they didn't know what it was a reference to. It's not as if there's been much coverage of the Obama/Rekzo connection. Just like the Obama/Ayers or Obama/Wright teamups. Imagine that.

You stay classy, Treason Media

Pedophiles on Oprah

The late-night rerun of Oprah just started and they're doing a show about pedophile predators and the porn they trade exploiting children as young has newborns. The audience, probably hoping to win a free car or see a movie star, is sitting in shocked horror. She read from an actual how-to brochure and showed a video pedophiles pass around to train kids (thru desensitization) how to "perform".

They also showed various law enforcement and child protection groups in the opener and I can't imagine the mental stress of working their gigs. Even with on-site psychologists, I couldn't do it - I just couldn't. I would be out the door, looking to lay some lethal vigilante justice upon these monsters, and if I couldn't, I'd go crazy from the helplessness.

I partially drafted but never posted a piece a few months back about how some moralistic scolds flip out over ADULT porn and act as if people are totally addicted to it, but hearing one of these hunters talk about pedophiles making bail and picking up a new PC on the way home so they can get their next fix of kiddie porn - they're pretty much addicted - and it makes one pause. I fell the same way with drug decriminalization: if people want to screw up their lives, whatever; but meth is so crazy, it makes me want to keep that off-limits.

Just because I like my voting-age consensual perversion doesn't me there aren't a ton of very sick puppies out their who prey on the helpless and need a quick express trip to hell, do not pass go, do not collect $200, do not go to jail. The recidivism rate for pedophiles is unacceptably high because if even one pervert hurts another child, it's one too many. I went looking for stats and Google gave me a scary amount of articles arguing that recidivism fears are overblown and not too many pedos slip and harm again. As I said: One is one too many!