It may be the greatest act of malfeasance ever leveled against the American public and this weekend the NY TIMES is trying to provide cover to its Democratic author(s). Prominent DEMS like Dodd, Frank, Obama, Clinton, Johnson, and Raines are getting a free pass from Old Pinch and his merry band of folk writers.

We just had an election in which the decisive financial melt-down was, as Roger Kimball details today, directly traceable to the Community Reinvestment Act and the Fannie/Freddie implosion — Democrat debacles through and through (with Obama as a top recipient of Fannie and Freddie pay-offs, er, I mean, contributions). Yet the Bush White House evidently figured it was beneath the president to speak out about these facts, and the GOP candidate was either blind to or frozen by the appearance of this hanging curveball, somehow deciding the campaign homestretch was, instead, the perfect time for an ode to, and preening display of, bipartisanship. After all, we wouldn't want to have elections be contests between parties about issues of importance to our lives, right?

And, natch, we got smoked ... and now the people who caused the problem have been put in charge of solving it, which is pretty damn bipartisan if you ask me.

It is a big part of the Left's project to control the historical narrative. If you consistently roll over for them, they will consistently roll over you. I'm delighted to find the White House now, six weeks after the election and eight months after the Bear Stearns fire-sale, telling us all about how Democrats fought off efforts to regulate Fannie and Freddie, about how "Democratic leaders brazenly encouraged Fannie and Freddie to loosen lending standards and instead encouraged the housing GSEs to play a larger and larger role in the housing market — even while explicitly acknowledging the rising risks[,]" etc.

Related
Who caused the global economic crisis? (Hint: it wasn’t George W. Bush)

"Perhaps the most amazing thing about the Times’s little drama that casts George Bush as the protagonist of our economic tragedy is not what’s in it but what isn’t. You will search in vain for the name “Barney Frank” or the phrase “Community Reinvestment Act.” But telling the story of our economic crisis with out those elements is like staging Macbeth without Macbeth or the witches."

Capital Is On Strike

"As Shlaes writes in The Forgotten Man, if Hoover caused the Depression, FDR prolonged it by constantly attacking the investor class, whom he called the “malefactors of great wealth”–a phrase originally said by the first Roosevelt, Theodore. FDR’s attempt to pack the Supreme Court in 1937 was driven in part by his wish to tax the rich retroactively."

(Anti-) Mustard Seeds

"I’m going to get to mustard seeds in a moment, but let me first address two anti-mustard seeds: “bailout nation” and a pump-priming Fed. Bailout nation remains an ongoing issue. It really goes to the issue of government planning, industrial policy, and Uncle Sam picking winners and losers. This obviously includes Detroit, which we will probably get a decision on later this week.

Here’s a quote from President Bush that captures all my concerns about bailout nation: “I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market system.” Oh no. Say it ain’t so Mr. Bush. Either you believe in markets, or you don’t. Unfortunately, right now, the intellectual and policy tide out of Washington is anti-market. Not good."

Labels: clintons, democrats, dodd, economics, left-wing media, rangel

Top Recipients of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
Campaign Contributions, 1989-2008

1. Dodd, Christopher J
D-CT
$133,900

2. Kerry, John
D-MA
$111,000

3. Obama, Barack
D-IL
$105,849

4. Clinton, Hillary
D-NY
$75,550

Source

Related
Cornyn calls for criminal probe of Fannie, Freddie

Labels: clintons, democrats, obama

You've officially jumped the shark and been relegated to the pop-culture dustbin (deemed culturally useless and irrelevant) when the press "blesses" you with an amalgam. Billary is almost as good as Brangelina and Bennifer.

It was bad enough that Hillary was one of those ladies like Cher and Madonna with only one name.

But even for a pair of grifters like the Arkansas duke and his lovely dauphin, money isn’t enough. After all, you can only spend so much time in your day counting coins. A couple that has spent precious little time in the private sector — a.k.a., the “real world” — and has grown fat and rich off the public teat, needs the Permanent Campaign like a junkie needs a shot, like a horse needs a carriage, like a fish needs a bicycle. It’s not the getting of the office that’s the name of the game, it’s the seeking of it. The thrill of the chase. The excitement of the hunt. The sound of the horns and the hounds, baying at the moon of political power.

So, as much as it pains me to say it, Hillary ain’t dropping out, not if she’s the man I think she is. After all, what has she got to lose by staying in? Bill’s legacy is already etched in stone: impeachment, the Marc Rich pardon and, nine months after he left office, two giant steaming holes in lower Manhattan. Now matter how many times he wags his finger or bites his lip, there is, amazingly, nowhere for him to go but further down. And now that he can’t hurt us any more, we’re even free to say it!

Source: A First Lady and a State Legislator

Speaking of jumping the shark...Michael G. Franc on the party of elites.

Labels: clintons, democrats

Whatever initial/preliminary goodwill I had for Obama as the **NEW** candidate is completely gone. Every new story about Obama and those connected to him (terrorist Bill Ayers, super racist Reverend Wright, and indicted developer Antoin Rezko) make the arugulu a little more unpalatable. Obama deserves props for making someone like Hillary seem the lesser of two evils.

Obama Tech Advisor Introduces Video of Gay, Singing Jesus Who Gets Hit by a Bus

More Details

Labels: clintons, democrats

Robert Ferrigno takes a dystopic look at the U.S. (post November) and finally answers the question about William Clinton everyone wants to know.

More on this short story from Peter Robinson:

It's 2012, the Fairness Doctrine has forced Rush Limbaugh off the air, President Obama is running for a second term, and Bill Clinton—didn't he used to be an ambassador or something?—has found himself in...reduced circumstances.

In "Missing Rush Limbaugh," novelist Robert Ferrigno has produced a strangely wonderful thing: A tale of the near future that's both utterly hilarious and really pretty scary. My favorite detail? The "I'm Sorry" button. I mean, it's perfect.

My favorite quote from Ferrigno's short story:

No problemo for that hombre. George W.’s biggest concern was that Dan Rather was going to go off his meds again, coming ashore in a wetsuit and flippers, holding a conch shell aloft and screaming he had finally found the evidence. If the facts don’t fit, you must acquit, Danno.

Labels: clintons, end times

I employ my own bastardized version of the fairness doctrine around here and it's strictly enforced...

Hillary Won't Say When She Packed Heat Last
Hillary Clinton is trying to out-Romney Romney, saying in a press conference Saturday that she had received firearms training as a youngster...

The video/audio is here. It has to be seen. It's textbook pandering (and maybe a tall tale). Is there .00001% ounce of "authentic" in this woman?

***Update***
Poll Shows Erosion Of Trust in Clinton

Really?

Labels: clintons, democrats

If William Kristol's assessment of Obama in the NYT is correct my prediction is that he will accept the office of VP. His supporters are threatening to withhold support for HRC in the general election if that happens but they will accept whatever narrative the DNC scripts.

(NYT) The more you learn about him, the more Obama seems to be a conventionally opportunistic politician, impressively smart and disciplined, who has put together a good political career and a terrific presidential campaign. But there’s not much audacity of hope there. There’s the calculation of ambition, and the construction of artifice, mixed in with a dash of deceit — all covered over with the great conceit that this campaign, and this candidate, are different.

**UPDATE**
This was just published on NRO:

Derb and Robbins are right: Obama is toast. There is no coming back from this either...Of course Hillary is the obvious beneficiary of his fall, and she may yet pull out the nomination. No matter. The numbers of voters who have sworn to pollsters that they would not vote for her no matter what, has hovered slightly above 50 percent forever. And, there will be a lot of angry Obama voters who won't show up for her.

This was posted by Lisa Schiffren. I still think HRC's staff will find a way to heal those divisions enough to win in November. She will also benefit from a non-hostile MSM who will be working overtime to heal those divisions (most likely by manufacturing "news" of a racially tinged nature that portray conservatives as indefensible cretins). Her greatest asset will be Obama who, given the choice between the Senate and VP, will make the only choice a shrewd, business and usual politico can make.

As an aside...Lisa writes that the election is McCain's to lose. I think that's going a little far, although, she mentions that McCain should introduce Phil Gramm front and center ASAP to calm reservations about his [McCain's] economic prowess in these very uncertain times. Once upon a time, Gramm was going to run for the GOP nomination. Gramm's economic credentials are indisputable.

Labels: clintons, democrats

Blogtalk: Pro-Clinton Bloggers Boycott Kos (Sorry, it's a link to the New York Times)

Objecting to the tone of attacks against Mrs. Clinton and her supporters on the blog, the diarist called for a “writers strike.”

"This is a strike - a walkout over unfair writing conditions at DailyKos. It does not mean that if conditions get better I won’t 'work'' at DailyKos again," Alegre wrote, promising to come back only "if we ever get to the point where we're engaging each other in discussion rather than facing off in shouting matches."

Source

Eric at Viking Pundit opines:

Pass the popcorn, again - Wow, the Left side of this presidential election has everything: identity politics run amok, another Florida voting disaster, Hillary trying to override the "will of the people" and now Daily Kos diarists going on strike. Can I get a Dean Scream Amen, my brothers?

The infighting on the DEM side is delicious. I'm really torn about the outcome. The Intrade Prediction Markets still show Obama winning the DEM nomination (71.8 versus 28.3); however, according to Rasmussen, his national lead against Hillary is fading.

If not for the seriousness of the challenges ahead, both campaigns (and candidates) would be laughable. In one instance you have Elton John signing for HRC for one night only and on the other you have Scarlett Johansson shilling for Obama and whose supporters seem obnoxiously gullible. Here's a typical post on the Obama BLOG (unedited...I resisted the impulse):

Hey everyone , it is really simple if you think about it. When a tree falls in the forest, that it make a sound? Try THis:

1/ TURN OFF THE TV, AVOID ALL OTHER WHITE NOISE.

2/ FOCUS ON THIS IMAGE: BARACK OBAMA AS THE NEXT PRESIDENT!

(Stick to it, and i promise you will feel good all week long)

TRY IT, now!

It's too bad this isn't 1990 when such naiveté, absurdity, and obtuseness would be passable. I think the above comment is more of an approximation of Obama's foreign policy...If I talk to Ahmadinejad I can help him visualize world peace and he will at once give up his nuclear enrichment program and innate hatred of Israel.

Yes. We. Can.

Labels: clintons, democrats

God damn America.

You know who's a Roman? Lucius here, he's a Roman. You know who else? Me. I'm a Roman.

It's over for Obama. Here's the Reverand Wright video on YouTube. I've heard very white educated liberals speak this way. Hillary and Obama both hate America and are equally unpalatable. Obama may speak about "hope" and "change" but there's a reason he's the candidate of choice for Cindy Sheehan. In case you haven't connected the dots, here's an excerpt from God and Gold that links Wright & Obama to the most virulent strain of Anti-Americanism:

"It appears today that some elements among the remnants of the Marxist left, radical Green, miscellaneous postmodern radicals of various hue, and radicalized Muslims are searching for a way to unite around the only issues that connect them: hatred of liberal capitalist modernity, Israel and the United States of America."

Now you know why Michelle Obama is finally proud of America. Here's more from God and Gold. It's almost like Mead is quoting one of Wright's sermons:

"The constitutional separation of church and state violates the authority of God...Commercialized, commodified sex permeates the American economy and culture. American scientists invented and spread AIDS. American pollution is destroying the world—and even so, the United States has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. American politics only pretends to be democratic; it is actually a plutocratic system, with Jews behind the scenes pulling the strings. America is the most violent society in the history of the world, dropping nuclear weapons on Japan among many other crimes. American hypocrisy is without compare; American democracy is reserved for the privileged white race. America has no right for the international law, though it wants to impose such laws on others. The Patriot Act ans other harsh measures after 9/11 fully expose the hypocrisy of America's claims to stand for human rights."

This tripe comes from the majority of American Colleges and Universities. Professors like Ward Churchill feed this babble to impressionable minds. I've seen the fruits of their labor; I've read graffiti at one of those places of privilege supporting the Iraqi insurgents. Disgusting.

Related
Peering into the demented mind of the America-hating left

**UPDATE**
John Derbyshire is gloating. He writes: "Why Didn't You LISTEN? Obama's toast, and Hillary will poll poorly against McCain. Get your bumper stickers now!"

**UPDATE 2**
Ouch. I found this on Wizbang.

I'm sure there is a way to spin Obama's 20-year relationship with a race-baiting man who calls for God to damn America, is convinced that it's run by the Ku Klux Klan, that the government engineered the AIDS virus to get rid of gays and blacks, and embraces Louis Farrakhan, but I can't find it.

Can someone help me out here?

Labels: clintons, democrats

Clinton targets pledged delegates

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign intends to go after delegates whom Barack Obama has already won in the caucuses and primaries if she needs them to win the nomination.

Source

Labels: clintons

You're Hillary Clinton.
You used to be in politics.
You used to be big.

I am big.
It's the delegates that got small.

Watch the video!


Related
I found this post over at Captain's Quarters in response to Ted Olson Grabs His Popcorn:

This unfolding of events is a metaphor for left wing ideology itself.

Leftists sincerely believe that human socio-psychological nature is a finite machine that can be engineered to perfection. The election rules, complete with super-delegates, were designed by the democrat best and brightest to prevent another embarrassing populist candidate from slipping through.

The design was plausible in theory, and had good intentions. But just as with other leftist utopian schemes, reality always bucks libs, always shows itself to have other designs, and always tries to humble them. Do they let themselves be humbled? No, their Religion of Progress marches on, oblivious to the trail of failure and destruction it leaves in its wake.

It fits the premise of Liberal Fascism. The liberal elite don't trust voters to choose for themselves. CNN political analyst Donna Brazile has said, "If 795 of my colleagues decide this election, I will quit the Democratic Party. I feel very strongly about this..."

Labels: clintons, democrats

"Now, imagine the nightmare for the Democrats if as the convention approaches, Obama has a lead in delegates but not enough for an outright win. Imagine the SDs kick it over to Hillary's side.

Tell me something, anything, which could then be said that wouldn't have people believing that the Clintons had managed a backroom deal to give her the nomination? The alienation of black Americans would only be the tip of the iceberg if that sort of scenario plays out. The claims of crooked politics within the Democratic party would have a devastating effect on what appears to be an energized electorate. I think it would wreak unbelievable and unavoidable havoc. Voters are not impressed by arcane nominating rules and primary nominating tricks."

Source

Related
Buyer's Remorse

Labels: clintons, democrats

The Captain weighs in on Hillary's $5 million infusion (a woman of the people folks, a woman of the people).

"The Clintons always seem to live at the nexus of questions regarding cash and politics. Whether we talk about Norman Hsu or Ron Burkle, their opacity in financial operations suggests a very, er, flexible attitude towards ethics in government -- and serves as a reminder why so many people oppose a Clinton Restoration."

Source

Labels: clintons, democrats

Al Gore could end Hillary's once inevitable coronation by endorsing Barack Obama. It would be a form of recompense after Bill's perjury (willful giving of false testimony under oath or affirmation, before a competent tribunal, upon a point material to a legal inquiry) cost him the Oval Office in 2000.

Labels: clintons, democrats

"According to a secular liberal analysis, if traditional morality was ever necessary at all (a dubious proposition for many), it has outgrown its utility. In a premodern age when venereal disease was a death sentence and out-of-wedlock birth a calamity, rules and norms for governing personal behavior had their place. But today, conventional morality is merely a means by which the ruling classes oppress women, homosexuals, and other sexually nonconforming rebels."

Labels: clintons, democrats

"In Clinton's village, however, there is no public square where free men and women and their voluntary associations deal with each other on their own terms free from the mommying of the state. There are no private transactions, just a single "spiritual community that links to a higher purpose" managed by the state."

"Hers is a political religion, an updated Social Gospel—light on the Gospel, heavy on the Social—spoken in soothing tones and conjuring a reassuring vision of cooperation and community. But it remains a singular vision, and there's no room in it for those still suffering from the "stupidity of habit-bound minds," to borrow from Dewey's phrase. The village may have replaced "the state," and it in turn may have replaced the fist with the hug, but an unwanted embrace from which you cannot escape is just a nicer form of tyranny."

Labels: clintons, democrats

"During a Q&A with voters at Tennesee State University in Nashville Saturday, Hillary Clinton discussed freedom of information, and floated the idea of putting bloggers in each government agency."

Source: The Huffington Post

And the priceless most response evuh from IMAO:

Panicky pig in a pantsuit Hillary Clinton poured another 100 gallons of stupid into the bubbling cauldron of her campaign's retarded soundbites by floating the notion that "we should have bloggers inside government agencies so that people get real-time information about what's going on."

It's bad enough bloggers have a reputation as one-hand-typing, basement-dwelling, pajama-clad ignorant windbags of hate and irresponsiblity, but now she wants to add "cronyfied government tools" to the list.

Nothing - save the blithering one-thought echo-chamber of the Huffington Post - offends my sensibilities as a freelance beholdin' to no-one speechifier more than the thought of the actual existence of an official government mouthpiece biting the nipple off the blogospheric bastion of anarchy at which I daily and enthusiastically give suck.

Still, since bad things DO happen to good people, the day may come when a blogger DOES get put into a government agency (which I assume is just a Clintonesque euphemism for "Super Happy Lucky Fun Re-education Camp"). Thus, I wonder aloud, "what will this dreary, Hillary-mandated outlet of 1984tastic goodspeakisms be titled?"

See the answers here.

Labels: clintons

...Hillary's word: It's worth nothing.

COURTING VOTERS in Iowa and New Hampshire, last August Sen. Hillary Clinton signed a pledge not to "campaign or participate" in the Michigan or Florida Democratic primaries. She participated in both primaries and is campaigning in Florida. Which proves, again, that Hillary Clinton is a liar.

Clinton kept her name on the Michigan ballot when others removed theirs, she campaigned this past weekend in Florida, and she is pushing to seat Michigan and Florida delegates at the Democratic National Convention. The party stripped those states of delegates as punishment for moving up their primary dates.

"I will try to persuade my delegates to seat the delegates from Michigan and Florida," Clinton said last week, after the New Hampshire primaries and Iowa caucuses were safely over.

Clinton coldly and knowingly lied to New Hampshire and Iowa. Her promise was not a vague statement. It was a signed pledge with a clear and unequivocal meaning.

She signed it thinking that keeping the other candidates out of Michigan and Florida was to her advantage, but knowing she would break it if that proved beneficial later on. It did, and she did.

New Hampshire voters, you were played for suckers.

Source

Labels: clintons

This is from Kudlow:

According to the front-page of today’s Wall Street Journal, Bill Gates is issuing a clarion call for a kinder capitalism to aid the world’s poor. Mr. Gates says he’s grown impatient with the shortcomings of capitalism. He thinks it’s failing much of the world, and he’s slated to say as much in a speech later today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland...

This is from Forbes:

Billionaire financier George Soros believes that the current market turmoil and economic uncertainty do not represent "a normal crisis similar to the other crises" and that the problems of credit, equities and the dollar are "an end to an era."

Soros said he did think governments had a role in rescuing markets; "otherwise we would go into a depression like we did in the 1930s." But, he added, "the authorities came to rely on the markets to right themselves. They ought to have known better, because they have in the past come to the rescue, so they ought to have known that the markets don't necessarily right themselves."

His call for government intervention is similar to comments made by Hillary.

(1) Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said that if she became president, the federal government would take a more active role in the economy to address what she called the excesses of the market and of the Bush administration."

Labels: clintons, economics

Jim A. Kuypers, assistant professor of communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech, examines media bias in president's speeches

"Immediately following 9/11, the mainstream news media (represented by CBS, ABC, NBC, USA Today, New York Times, and Washington Post) did echo Bush, but within eight weeks it began to intentionally ignore certain information the president was sharing, and instead reframed the president's themes or intentionally introduced new material to shift the focus."

This goes beyond reporting alternate points of view. "In short," Kupyers explained, "if someone were relying only on the mainstream media for information, they would have no idea what the president actually said. It was as if the press were reporting on a different speech."

Kuypers "detected massive bias on the part of the press." In fact, Kuypers calls the mainstream news media an "anti-democratic institution" in the conclusion.

Limestone Commentary
Is there some connection between media bias and fascism? The cartoon may hold the answer.

Related
Might Google Buy the New York Times?

Labels: clintons, democrats, left-wing media

A very humorous interview with Jonah Goldberg on IMAO:

Q. According to Wikipedia, your youth was spent robbing liquor stores until you saw an episode of Star Trek that made you reevaluate your life. What episode was it?

How does Wikipedia get everything so, so right? It was “A Piece of the Action” because until I saw that I had no idea Vic Tayback was so versatile. I mean I knew he was drop-dead sexy. But the man had chops. And once I saw that, I knew that there was more for me than boosting Korean-owned liquor stores and huffing Miracle Whip.

Q. Which presidential candidate is the most fascist?

I don't know, but Hillary Clinton wrote the most fascistic book of any of the candidates, remaining. Although I would have said Bill Richardson because he once wrote a book called “Nazi Supermen Are My Heroes” but it was in Spanish so few people read it. Also, despite the title, most of the book was about how he doesn't like negative campaigning.

Related
Hillary and Hayek, redux

Labels: clintons, the good guys

Stock Markets Plunge Worldwide & Black Monday as biggest FTSE crash since 9/11 wipes off nearly £60bn in shares

This was posted by Ace:

Hillary Clinton says that, if she is president, "the federal government would take a more active role in the economy to address what she called the excesses of the market and of the Bush administration." So that should presumably stop all this unpredictable, non-state-authorized buying and selling behavior.

The quote is a great segue into Jonah Goldberg's **NEW** book Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning.

From the introduction:

Again, it is my argument that American liberalism is a totalitarian political religion, but not necessarily an Orwellian one. It is nice, not brutal. Nannying, not bullying. But it is definitely totalitarian- or "holistic," if you prefer- in that liberalism today sees no realm of human life that is beyond political significance, from what you eat to what you smoke to what you say. Sex is political. Food is political. Sports, entertainment, your inner motives and outer appearance, all have political salience for liberal fascists. Liberals place their faith in priestly experts who know better, who plan, exhort, badger, and scold. They try to use science to discredit traditional notions of religion and faith, but they speak the language of pluralism and spirituality to defend "nontraditional" beliefs. Just as with classical fascism, liberal fascists speak of a "Third Way" between right and left and where all good things go together and all hard choices are "false choices."

This description of American liberalism seems to describe Mead and his cohorts at the New America Foundation.

Labels: clintons, economics

See the video here.

As seen on Power Line and Ace of Spades HQ.

Related
Hillary suffers setback in efforts to rig Nevada primary.

Judge Dismisses Nevada Caucus Challenge

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Democrats with ties to Hillary Rodham Clinton failed in court Thursday to prevent casino workers from caucusing at special precincts in Nevada.

The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge James Mahan was presumed to be a boost for Clinton rival Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential caucuses Saturday because he has been endorsed by the union representing many of the shift workers who will be able to use the precincts on the Las Vegas strip.

"State Democrats have a First Amendment right to association, to assemble and to set their own rules," Mahan said.

Source

*****Video*****
Bill Clinton is angry about the ruling.

Labels: clintons

...so says Sarah Janecek in the MinnPost.com.

But for the fact that her husband was president, he would never have appointed Hillary to chair a national health care task force that emerged from secret negotiations with a spectacularly economically implausible plan for universal health care. "HillaryCare" was so disastrous it couldn't even muster enough Democratic votes in the U.S. Senate to pass.

Every career move Hillary made since the 1970s when she left Washington for Arkansas to marry Bill, was because of the status of her man. She never busted her own move.

The antithesis of feminism is professional achievement entirely dependent on a husband.

Besides accomplishing real work sua sponte, a real feminist icon should also demonstrate good judgment and solid character.

Labels: clintons

"The point of the surge was to quickly move the Iraqi government and Iraqi people. That is only now beginning to happen, and I believe in large measure because the Iraqi government, they watch us, they listen to us. I know very well that they follow everything that I say."

- Hillary Rodham Clinton

Labels: clintons

This is from Michelle Malkin. I'm quoting at length because she's giving a voice to those of us disgusted with the candidates (and our choices) from both parties.

I need a man. A man who can say "No." A man who rejects Big Nanny government. A man who thinks being president doesn't mean playing Santa Claus. A man who won't panic in the face of economic pain. A man who won't succumb to media-driven sob stories.

A man who can look voters, the media, and the Chicken Littles in Congress in the eye and say the three words no one wants to hear in Washington: Suck. It. Up.

The Michigan primary put economics at the top of the political radar screen, and the Democrat presidential candidates have been doling out spending proposals, stimulus packages, housing market rescues, and other election-year-goodie pledges like Pez candy dispensers gone haywire. Which leading GOP candidate represents fiscal accountability and limited government? Who will take the side of responsible homeowners and responsible borrowers livid at bipartisan bailout plans for a minority of Americans who bought more house than they should have and took out unwise mortgages they knew they couldn’t repay?

I don’t want to hear Republicans recycling the Blame Predatory Lenders rhetoric of Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Jesse Jackson. Enough with the victim card. Borrowers are not all saints. There's nothing compassionate about taking money from prudent, frugal families and using it to aid their reckless neighbors and co-workers who moved into McMansions they couldn't afford or went crazy tapping their home equity and now find themselves underwater.

Labels: clintons, democrats, the good guys

"The exit polls have shown, the Democratic primary is turning into a battle between the people that pay for Social Security and those that collect it."

Instapundit via First Friday Collective

A sobering and non-partisan article from Megan McArdle in the Atlantic about how retiring Baby Boomers will change the texture of society in ways we’ve scarcely begun to contemplate.

"The political battles over all of this will be bitter, and they will probably be, too often, won by the retirees, who vote in force (though not always as a bloc). Those same retirees may also vote against things that are actually in their interest—thus shutting out the immigrants who could help them stay at home, and out of the nursing home, longer; turning down school taxes that could create a more productive workforce to support them; fighting for zoning restrictions that make it harder for the low-income workers who provide their services to live within easy commuting distance."

Limestone Commentary

This is why Hillary won't lose in 2008 and why open borders will follow her inauguration. It also explains the popularity of candidates Ron Paul (disclaimer: I think his supporters are absolutely batty) and Senator Barrack Obama. It explains why the GOP is splintering (See Here comes Housing Czarina Hillary to the rescue by Malkin as example). These are heady days for DEMS and one of the reasons Nancy is hiding (lest she reminds the country what will happen when DEMS control all three branches of government).

Finally, has there ever been a better quote to describe Hillary Clinton?

"You must give the Boomers credit: their uncanny ability to focus solely on themselves, approvingly, appears undiminished by age."

And this one from NRO is also priceless:

"While she kept saying, in her victory speech, some variant of "my heart is full" five or six times, I half expected the Sally Field Oscar acceptance: "you love me. You really love me." The new, more human Hillary is going to grate in the opposite direction, I fear."

Labels: clintons, generational conflict

Related: Hillary as potential fundraising bonanza for GOP.

Labels: clintons

End of an Era

The de facto knockout blow is about to be delivered tomorrow in the snowy streets of New Hampshire. Hillary Clinton certainly won’t drop out after her loss; she will stagger on but prove unable to stop Obama. And to watch the Clintons' rage and desperation grow in the last days of this campaign will not be pretty. They will lash out at everyone, including Obama, the media, her own campaign, and maybe, eventually, each other.

There are many things to say about the deeper meaning of this moment and what its passing will signify. Suffice it to say that it will be good, very good, for us to say farewell to the couple that brought you Carville, Begala, Blumenthal, and Ickes; the "war room," the use of private investigators, and attacks on women like Dolly Kyle Browning, Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers, and Kathleen Willey; impeachment for perjurious, false and misleading testimony to a grand jury; contempt of court findings; the promiscuous smearing of those whom they viewed as threat to their power; the charges of a "vast right-wing conspiracy" and assurances that that "I did not have sexual relations with that woman"; and so much more.

Source

Labels: clintons

**UPDATED**

closing thoughts on Iowa...

From everything I've read the energy and enthusiasm is clearly on the DEM side. I still believe Hillary will prevail because (a) she represents the establishment (elitists) and (b) has the machinery for a long slog. Also, the pining her ilk (baby boomers) have for Camelot, as captured by this long article in Vanity Fair, is a force/motivator unto itself.

Bill and Hillary, still stuck in the sixties and fighting old battles, look pathetically old. And nothing demonstrates this better than the juxtaposition between Obama and the old (er, new?) Clinton Administration.

Obama's probably more radical than Hillary but the country needs more leadership than the Angelina Jolie/Bill and Hillary Clinton junket to Davos. We need more than Martha Stewart organizing White House "coffees" and the titillating/frenzied drive of some old hippies trying to recapture Camelot. Hillary is nothing more than "business as usual" and a further consolidation of elitist privilege (limousine liberals) under the guise of progressive causes.

If Hillary does win it will be because she's forced to move to the right, and this rightward drift may drive whatever orthodox she has from her triangulating soul [need a substitute for soul]. Unfortunately it won't spare us from whispers of Camelot and the journalistic orgy (and Barbara Streisand) that will follow.

Postscript
If I needed a (c) on why Hillary will prevail I would add the schism developing between the GOP that makes this opportunity for the DEM candidate so heady. The TIME (or Newsweek -- does it even matter) cover with the crying Ronald Reagan was a bit much, but there's definitely a growing divide in the GOP that Hillary must be lusting.

And finally, I'm not answering this email again...A Catholic isn't an Evangelical.

**UPDATED**

Damn. This is from Viking Pundit.

Clinton's campaign has always followed some kind of circular logic that she should be the nominee because she should be the nominee. But now that the "inevitability" myth has been shattered, Hillary has no substance to fall back on. She's been purposely vague on issues and her "standard lines" are as hackneyed as an episode of "ER."

Furthermore, Hillary has been making broad statements like these for months without anybody really challenging her. But now Democrats are asking "what's it all about, Alfie?" What does it mean that Hillary is "ready on day one?" In what special way is Hillary more qualified? Because she once had an office in the West Wing? Preposterous.

Labels: clintons, generational conflict

CLINTONS NO LONGER THE LIFE OF PARTY

January 4, 2008 -- DES MOINES, Iowa - Awaiting her coronation here last night, Hillary Rodham Clinton instead faced a seething revolt within her own party.

More than 70 percent of Iowa Democrats rejected her bid to get back into the White House.

And so, after 15 years of domination, the Clinton dynasty has finally lost its grip on the Democratic Party.

More than anything else, Clinton's campaign was built upon the aura of inevitability.

That's now shattered and left in Iowa's frozen cornfields.

Source

Michelle has pictures.

Labels: clintons, democrats

No. It's like a horror movie when Freddie or Michael Myers keeps coming back over and...over...and...over again. This is a mere stumbling block for the cackling radical/shrew from New York (er, Arkansas).

No. The shrew has some cackle left and the dollars (Soros) and organizations (Media Matters) to hang on for a long time.

On the other hand...This quote from Hot Air (I love Hot Air) is tantalizing:

"I don't want to jinx it, especially given the Clintons' knack for comebacks, but in this dark conservative hour we need a little light. So take heart in this — as bad as I thought she'd do this afternoon, she actually did worse. With only 60 precincts left to be counted, she’s eight points behind and destined for the third-place finish Bob Novak and Chuck Todd declared would likely be "fatal" and a "near-disaster" for her candidacy."

More...

Olbermann, who wouldn't get out of his tub to report the Clinton impeachment, is trying to spin Hillary's 3rd place finish. Meanwhile the Kos Kids are flummoxed.

Hillary's camp is already circulating talking points. According to the cackler this election is about "serious times" (like the time Old Pinch was irregular) hence her "vast experience" automatically qualifies her. Obviously experience isn't a factor (Obama is a one term Senator???) but it certainly doesn't help when people recoil at your banshee-like wailing.

Here's one point of view on why Hillary's rebound may be good for the GOP:

The Clintons' leadership of the Democratic Party was great for the Clintons, terrible for the Democratic Party: They lost the House, they lost the Senate, they lost state legislatures and governors' mansions, and in the end Clinton couldn't even bequeath the White House to his Vice-President in a time of peace and prosperity. Yet his First Lady wound up with a Senate seat. After a decade and a half of his neo-monarchical stewardship, you get a real (if discreetly expressed) sense of frustration from a big chunk of Dems that the first woman candidate should happen to be this particular woman.

A couple of month(s) with Hillary, Nancy (Waldo these days) and Harry pulling the levers and the GOP may just find themselves in the majority again.

More...

Wizbang on Hillary Rodham Clinton:

"Clinton will go Medieval on Obama. I mean, seriously, what choice does she have now but to go uber-negative? It's not as if she can stress her charming personality."

Do you think Bill has told Carville to open an auxiliary war room?

The Hidenburg graphic at Redstate is a bit much (hubris dude, hubris).

And more...

"Hillary may have a miracle up her sleeve, and if she does win Iowa then she is a safe bet for the Democratic nomination. But no strategic attempt to lower expectations could explain away a loss after she worked the state so hard. Her first choice in Iowa was always to win."

Source

Labels: clintons

The blogger with many visions™ just found this article referenced on Hot Air. This robot poops bricks of ice and was created by a consortium of private companies, municipal governments and university researchers.

Jonah Goldberg's NEW book is available on Tuesday, January 8. I will read it (required for any good right-of-center blogger embroiled in the good fight) but have long known that Hillary Clinton (and her ilk) are fascists.

Hillary would like to be your Mommy and submission is OK (quite yummy actually) when it comes from the hand of such a benevolent figure. Rationalizing the cackler is akin to Winston's submission to Big Brother:

O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.

Labels: clintons, robots

Make sure you take your OxyClinton before watching.

This is from Hot Air:

My jaw dropped when I watched this one the first time. Hillary’s Christmas ad says nothing at all about Christmas. The gifts make the connection, of course, but check out what the gifts are: universal health care, bring the troops home, etc. All of the gifts are funded in one way or another with your money. And she’s portraying herself as a thoughtful gift-giver by taking your money and giving it back to you in the form of expensive government programs, some or all of which you might not actually want or need. If that doesn’t typify liberal thinking, I don’t know what does.

I love the Hot Air headline.

A gift.

Labels: clintons, end times

There were two (2) great articles on Hillary Rodham Clinton today. While quotes like this (see below) by Noemie Emery make me chuckle, she composes a rather biting piece on the similarities between Hillary and Albert and their utter and total lack of gravitas. And both without Bill are nothing more than lifeless husks forced to drift uncomfortably from their cold Marxist ideologies.

"And Hillary’s cackle — the harsh, grating ‘caw’ she unleashes in efforts at levity — already has reached the iconic stature of Gore’s histrionic eye rolling and sighs."

The cackle is a guttural rejection of anything that isn't from the anti-septic, miracle-free, hyper-bureaucratic world of a Marxist. It is the ultimate expression of discomfort from a woman who isn't capable of pretending to be anything else. But she pretends anyway because it's the prize she's entitled to...and while she pretends the public gets to see this pithy act. Meanwhile, she's forced to concede her ideological beliefs because NO majority would be comfortable in her Ameriqa...her, "I pledge allegiance to the Ameriqa that could be."

Jonah Goldberg writes:

Her career is indisputably a product of her marriage. But for most of her life, Hillary had an independent ideological identity that now seems to have gone down the memory hole. In her own words, she championed a whole new "politics of meaning" and sought to redefine "who we are as human beings in this postmodern age."

But, bit by bit, she sliced off chunks of her soul. Hillary used to be the personification of hope for the left. On the welfare debate, she was supposed to be Bill's conscience. She was the Eleanor to his Franklin.

But now Hillary is the Democrats' establishment candidate, pitted against the true believer, John Edwards, and the idealist, Obama. Even committed liberals tell focus groups she's too cold, too calculating.

Labels: clintons

I heard (and saw) Hillary cackling on Fox this morning. You can listen yourself via Hot Air.

Video: Hillary unleashes the mother of all cackles on Fox & Friends

Michelle has more on Operation Rescue Hillary:

"Ah, the whiff of desperation in morning. Can you smell it? It’s Hillary Clinton’s new perfume. She’s on a whirlwind media tour this morning to rescue her crumbling campaign."

Hugh follows-up with this:

"The claim of inevitability has clearly rubbed many Democrats the wrong way, and Bill's "anger" at the media is thinly disguised disgust with Democratic primary voters, a disgust that isn't going to charm them back to Hillary's camp. Democrats may be embracing a party-wide decision to dump the baggage and the Boomers and, as the group says, move on."

Limestone Commentary

I think she'll still win the nomination and the next 4 to 8 years will be business as usual. The same ideologically corrupt environment.

I like Hugh's comments about the Boomers. I could give a rat's ass about 1968 and the ephemeral dreams those hippies were chasing. The entire (and now non-existent war movement) is based on some obsession with 1968.

Labels: clintons

John Redwood comments on the 400,000 bolting Brits. His list of reasons is exhaustive and a warning to the kind of soft socialism championed by progressives like Hillary Clinton. Redwood's article isn't new because others have written about the same kind of rot in their own countries. The countries of Europe are falling like dominoes and their progressivism is a soft underbelly exploited by radical Muslims.

There are two great essays in When We Are Free (Second Edition). The first is titled Why I Left Sweden by Eric Brodin and it's eerily similar to Redwood's. Brodin writes, "I left Sweden because I could no longer tolerate the increasingly arbitrary actions by government agencies which have assumed powers unprecedented in nontotalitarian states."

The second is appropriately titled The Last Candle by Jack Schreiber and it explains why the US is sliding towards socialism. He writes:

Never have any people, at any time, anywhere, had it so good. But in our present abundance and luxury something is wrong. People aren't happy. They don't walk down the street of our cities smiling, or whistling a happy tune. There is discontent, and one can sense fear of the unknown. Overabundant Americans are jittery. There seems to be a tarnish on our golden Mecca. Our welfare lists are growing. We've created a new breed of men who won't work. And instead of the slogan, "God bless America," we now hear, "What have you done for me lately?" The signs aren't too hard to read. They are the signs of internal decay - the dry rot of apathy and indifference.

Labels: clintons, democrats

Hillary Clinton Faces a Viral-Video 'Truth-Boating'

Here's a link to the video. I think the real crime is listening to Cher.

After right-wing hack Chris Matthews [Tim Russert] causes Hillary to stumble at debate she seeks solace from all-female alma mater (wink, wink).

Bloggers File FEC Complaint Against Hillary Clinton.

AP: DOJ is investigating Hillary’s donations in Chinatown (via Hot Air).

Clinton: WAAAH! Russert Was a Big Meanie!

The Great Media Pile-On by Howard Kurtz

Hillary Clinton actually had a pretty smooth night, but her botching of the Spitzer question was a clear mistake. The substance--whether she backs the New York governor's plan to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants--is not insignificant. But it was her utter inability to take a position that will launch a thousand stories on the media's most negative rap against HRC:

She's a triangulator. A trimmer. A carefully calculating pol who says what people want to hear. A canny candidate who is allergic to specifics.

Hilliam Clinton

In the 1990s, "Clintonesque" became a by-word for political double-speak. We even became, briefly, a nation of deconstructionists when President Bill Clinton mused on the meaning of "is."

Such existential questions seemed to be in the past. But with another Clinton running as if she's all but a sure thing for the White House, Clintonesque is once again becoming a politically relevant adjective.

Impressions of the Democratic field

Ms. Hillary: Her approach to these multicandidate forums is consistently evasive. Her answers are finely calculated not to commit her to anything. She conceals the radicalism of her true views to further the impression that she is a traditional liberal Democrat, perhaps in the mode of Mr. Bill. Her public persona is so synthetic it should be patented by Dupont. I'm sure that her true views are completely compatible with those of the Democrats that form the base of what has become a radical party. Her awkwardness in evading the Clinton archives and immigration questions last night was unusual only in its transparency.

Hillary's Pander-Monium on Illegal Alien Driver's Licenses

So after straddling, wavering and then waffling and contradicting herself in a nationally televised debate on Eliot Spitzer's plan to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens, and then blaming Tim Russert for daring to ask her the question, Hillary Clinton has finally decided that pandering to left-wing extremists is the safer course, albeit kicking and screaming about having to be even this specific...

Where does depression hurt? - Mary Katharine Ham

More Wellesley

The Hillary campaign's feminist inconsistencies at Wellesley, in the NY Sun article you link to, Kathryn, are bigger than the "boy's club" comment. My favorite bit, was that, at the rally at alumnae hall, the background music was The Police, singing "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic." And then, the reporter says, a male voice came over the PA system, urging the female students to "get excited." They responded with a big "wooooo." That's what you'd expect for a rock star, or a sex goddess. Is she, say, Madonna circa 1988? We've all seen the dreadful yearbook pictures from her Wellesley days. What a moment of triumph — to get to walk back in as a conquering heroine, and engineer the crowd's response.

Source

Labels: clintons

The blogger with many visions™ wouldn't even give odds on how long it would take Hillary Rodham Clinton to invoke this line of defense.

It's the old feminist one in which women must be treated as equals - except when they're criticized by males. When men criticize, that amounts to unfair picking on a woman, or "piling on" as the Clinton campaign puts it, or "ganging up" in the metaphor used by others. Naturally, Clinton supporters say she stood up to the attacks. And she did, but her responses were lame and evasive.

That Clinton took a beating in the debate had nothing to do with gender and everything to do with the fact that she's the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. Frontrunners are always attacked by the other candidates in the runup to actual voting in the primaries. If a male candidate were leading, he'd have faced a similar barrage. Just ask Howard Dean, the frontrunner four years ago.

Here is the best post of the month on Hillary Rodham Clinton:

Hillary's real problem, both in the debate and across the campaign, is also her big problem; she's a little too clever by half. Dodgy answers, parsing phrases, using gender to seek special treatment, transparently fake sincerity, multiple accents...it all adds up to a slippery ooze of intellectual dishonesty. That's not at all uncommon in politics, to be fair, but somehow it's even a little more off-putting from Ms. Clinton, who seems to wrap up her sophistry under a big bow of smugness.

In an election where the hunger for big political change is ravenous, it is Clinton's tired and cynical style, not just the chronology of her career, that makes her the candidate of yesterday's politics, not tomorrow's. And that is poison. Watch Obama begin to climb.

Source: NRO

Limestone Commentary
She couldn't answer the question about illegal immigration because she didn't want to alienate the majority of Americans who oppose it. Why can't Hillary demonstrate some conviction? Why can't Hillary tell us that she supports open borders and "free" education and health services for illegals?

Labels: clintons, democrats

Ted Kennedy/Harry Reid are attaching a hate-crimes amendment to the defense authorization bill. According to Redstate:

"There is fear among religious groups that a member of their church may be subject to prosecution for stating a moral belief against homosexual behavior or expressing a religious tenet of that faith."

The amendment would give wide latitude to judges (judicial activism):

"The use of the term "perceived" in the amendment makes it difficult to say there is any "class" of individuals affected. Anybody could be a "hate crimes" victim depending what a judge concludes was "perceived" at the time of the crime."

Here's more:

The amendment is different from hate crimes laws on the books because it treats homosexuality and transsexuality (that is, "sexual orientation" and "gender identity") as new protected classes — i.e., as if they were races or sexes.

Many Christian pastors have expressed concern that this bill opens the way for them to be be prosecuted — as has happened in other countries — simply for teaching the long-held Christian position that homosexual activity is a serious sin. Attempts to add a religious freedom clause were rebuffed, although the fear is less of this particular bill than the precedent it sets and the slippery slope that might result. The bill also involves the federal government deeply in prosecuting local hate crimes.

The Bush administration has promised a veto. This and similar amendments have been added on to the defense bill for years, for purposes of getting them through Congress.

The bill has nothing to do with "national defense, the war in Iraq, or other similar topics."

Sources: (1), (2), and (3)

**RELATED**
You can decide how.
Muslim alliance derails UN's gay rights resolution

Labels: clintons, democrats

I think Ahmadineijad at Columbia University pushed me over the edge. My barrel ride over the falls all started with the special pricing offered to MoveOn by the NY TIMES. The icing on the cake is being referred to as The Cackle that Killed 1,000 Ears. I need to be re-educated by GOOGLE.

On the other hand...

This morning, Clark Hoyt, Public Editor of the New York Times, acknowledged that the paper had violated its own advertising policies by giving MoveOn.org a discounted rate for the ad that accused General Petraeus of being a traitor. Hoyt also said that in his judgment, the ad should not have been approved under the paper's policy that states, "We do not accept opinion advertisements that are attacks of a personal nature."

I think it is a reasonable inference that someone in the Times' advertising department collaborated with MoveOn.org to get the ad into the paper on the critical morning when General Petraeus's testimony began, while charging the group the paper's discounted "standby" rate, because the Times employee shared MoveOn's desire to smear Petraeus. It is revealing, too, that the Times employee who is charged with enforcing the policy against "attacks of a personal nature" didn't see anything out of bounds about calling our commanding general in Iraq a traitor.

Source

Labels: clintons, democrats, iran

TIMES GIVES LEFTIES A HEFTY DISCOUNT FOR 'BETRAY US' AD

September 13, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - The New York Times dramatically slashed its normal rates for a full-page advertisement for MoveOn.org's ad questioning the integrity of Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.

Source

Hillary is defending MoveOn.org. Is the phrase "a willing suspension of disbelief” a lefty phrase?

Ridin' Dirty
Michelle Malkin has all the details on Hsu's generous donations to Camp Hill and how the Clinton campaign wants to re-purpose the dirty money.

**RELATED**
Hsu Roundup: Out of Hospital; $4 Million Bail; A Suicide Note; Other Campaigns React (UPDATE)

Clinton Campaign: Don't Blame Us, We're Incompetent

Labels: clintons, democrats

Americans remain sceptical about the Democrats' favourite tool for improving the world—government action. A Democracy Corps poll found that Americans believe by a majority of 57% to 29% that government makes it harder for people to get ahead in life. The same poll found that 83% of people believe that, if the government had more money, it would probably waste it, the highest level of anti-government sentiment in a decade. America is not entering into a new era of liberal activism.

- Excerpt from "Is America Turning Left" in the Economist.

First seen

**Related**
Hillary’s socialist housing bailout plan

Labels: clintons, democrats

This headline (see below) says everything you need to know about the DEMS politicization of the GWOT. DEMS only succeed when America fails. They are the party of bad news and their lust for it extends to all facets of American life.

Democrats Refocus Message on Iraq After Military Gains

Democratic leaders in Congress had planned to use August recess to raise the heat on Republicans to break with President Bush on the Iraq war. Instead, Democrats have been forced to recalibrate their own message in the face of recent positive signs on the security front, increasingly focusing their criticisms on what those military gains have not achieved: reconciliation among Iraq's diverse political factions.

Source

Hillary continues to straddle the dike (don't go near there).

Labels: clintons, democrats

She's hostile to people of faith (unless you're a MUSLIM because it's politically incorrect to SAY anything about the religion of peace).

8 Reasons Why Conservatives Must Defeat Hillary

Labels: clintons

How will progressives like