So Nice it's Posted Twice

I posted this as part of a link earlier, but it's worth revisiting as a separate post. As I'm sure we're all aware now, the Democrats are threatening to enact health care legislation through the "nuclear option", more properly known as budget reconciliation, a procedural move allowing for only 50 votes in the Senate in cases of legislation which is deficit neutral (its first use was actually to curtail spending to reduce the deficit). In fact, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (soon to be retired D. NV) even told Republicans to "stop crying" about the option. But then, Harry knows all about crying about reconciliation. In fact, so does President Obama, Senator Chuck Schumer (D. NY), and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D. ummm...Arkansas? NY?...) amongst others now threatening to use the procedure despite 56% of Americans being against the plan and only 44% for Obama care. So once again for your viewing pleasure, I give you hypocrites row on video. I especially like how they call it an arogant power grab and a threat to constitutional separation of powers.

Let's be clear, both parties have used this method before and both have complained about it before. But this is beyond the pale.

Methinks Thou Doth Protest Too Much

President Barack Obama claimed today that he is "an ardent believer in the free market", all evidence to the contrary, in an attempt to reject claims that his programs are socialist. So let's check the record. He told Joe the Plumber he thought spreading the wealth was good. He took over GM and Chrysler in violation of the rights of secured creditors and federal bankruptcy law. He appointed a Pay Czar to oversee compensation. His administration has overseen "cash for clunkers", a program designed to create demand for cars by destroying cars (the Soviets used to burn boots in piles outside factories because there was no demand for them but the government had said they must be produced).

This is an ardent believer in the free market? I find it easier to believe he's an ardent believer in the tooth fairy.

Maybe There's a Chance

It's clear that President Obama and the Democrats are more than happy to discard public opinion (10% approval rating) and charge head on with unpopular measures in the interests of ideology. Not only this, they are willing to look like massive hypocrites by using the "nuclear" option which was designed for budgetary measures that don't increase the deficit. Watch the President and other Democrats cry out against this supposedly unconstitutional procedure here. So I was ready to give up, frustrated that the system is so far from what was intended and so broken that it couldn't be fixed, it's "public servants" so insulated from public opinion that they could simply ignore the outcry from the masses.

But hope springs eternal. Senator Scott Brown (R? Mass.), so recently the darling of the right for taking the seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy, voted for a jobs bill so asinine it should disqualify anyone who votes for it from public service. The backlash was immediate. Not only that, my Congressman, Joseph Cao (R? LA), the sole Republican vote in the House in favor of the health care program, has since seen his campaign donations drop 40%.

So maybe, just maybe, the people are willing to hold the politicians feet to the fire. Maybe the outrage can be maintained long enough that we can begin to correct the system. Maybe sometime in my lifetime, the Constitution will have meaning again.

Mardi Gras and the Superbowl

I'm taking a few more days off from this to soak in the usual New Orleans carnivale season and the Saints' Superbowl victory. Be back soon with Part 2 of the Plan (assuming I haven't forgotten it by then).

I'll Have the Irony and Some Peas

Everyone remember Foezzy Zoeller? In April of 1997, a young lecher and sex addict with a penchant for putting a ball in a hole...let me rephrase...a young golfer with a partial African-American heritage was tearing up the PGA by the name of Tiger Woods. Mr. Woods had just won the Masters, a huge accomplishment for any golfer and one of the "Masters" tournaments. The winner hosts the dinner the next year and chooses the menu as the former winners attend. Fuzzy, well known as the jokester on the tour, said something along the lines of I hope the "little boy" (Fuzzy was 45 versus the 21 year old Woods) doesn't order fried chicken and collard greens for the dinner. Tiger Woods accepted his apology, but Fuzzy effectively dissapeared that year. I don't remember ever hearing from him again.

Enter the modern era. NBC, the television company so far up President Obama's ass you can see their logo on his uvula, had this cafeteria sign posted to celebrate black history month. I wonder if Chris Matthews forgot he was eating black folks' food in the cafeteria for the lunch hour. Maybe he just figured the meal was post-racial.

Jokes aside, I actually think both the Fuzzy Zoeller comment and the menu are fine, though perhaps in bad taste given the context. Black culture in the U.S. is inexorably tied to Southern culture and vice-versa in the area of cuisine. That menu is available downstairs at the Poydras Center in downtown New Orleans at Dizzy's, a popular lunch stop for businessmen of all backgrounds. Be careful to recognize real racism. It comes in two forms. One side is the unreasoning hatred, the Aryans and the KKK and Malcolm X and Black Panthers. The second is more subtle, the reasoning pity of those who want to represent you because you can't take care of yourself. The Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton and liberals (Democrat and Republican alike) who tell you how much they respect you so they are going to make sure the government cares for you because you can't do it.

Personally, I'd like everything on the menu and, sad to say, I haven't tried the greens, but let's rock.

A Rather Hectic Week

I've had what has been one of the more hectic and travel intense weeks of my life. I'll be posting again soon.

When Blind Ignorance of the Facts Just Won't Due, Call Clyburn

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D., S.C.) demonstrated today what happens when all brain function ceases in a human being opining that we have to spend our way out of the recession. Clearly Clyburn is not familiar with American history if he thinks FDR spent us out of the Great Depression. Also, logic is strained, to say the least, when it is used to say that government spending increases economic output. If that were the case, governments should spend every sent they can print constantly and they'd be able to have the best economy in the world. I'll be interested to see if Clyburn is challenged for his seat in South Carolina and if that little tidbit isn't featured in the campaign.