32 Comments

1. maria horvath:

A clear confirmation of Peter’s Principle:

People in an organization rise to the level of their incompetence.

Mar 22, 2005 - 7:29 am 2. Silicon valley Jim:

Is that a bullwhip in Nancy’s hand?

Mar 22, 2005 - 7:50 am 3. PJ:

Yeah, Jim, I thought the same thing, LOL!

Look out, you recalcitrant Dems! Your punishment is at hand!

Mar 22, 2005 - 8:31 am 4. jerry:

I don’t know, Nancy looks pretty hot as a dominatrix. Maybe she should retire from Congress, move to Florida and open up salon for older clients.

Mar 22, 2005 - 8:39 am 5. goldsmith:

Pelosi was the Minority Whip of the House from 2002-2003, hence the symbolic bullwhip.

Still, it’s a terrifying thought…

Mar 22, 2005 - 8:58 am 6. Silicon valley Jim:

goldsmith,

So there’s a tradition that the majority and minority whips in each house of Congress carry a bullwhip on certain ceremonial occasions? I didn’t know that! Thank you!

Mar 22, 2005 - 11:02 am 7. Carol_Herman:

Sorry, Roger,no comparison.

Pelosi never gets anything right. When Grey Davis was challenged here; and Schwartzenegger became his competition, you only have to look at the 3 “grandmas” to realize none of the bougtht a clue when they began to lead the moonbat’s agenda.

Pelosi. Boxer. Feinstein. They couldn’t even attract Her Royal Thighness to expend a little political capital to save Davis’ hide.

Of course, for all the rest of us, a very good thing! Why do I say this? If Grey kept his governor’s job there’s a good bet Kerry wouldn’t have made it to the nomination.

That’s the nature of politics. Like war, some generals actually can meet their bullet before they get a chance to show their stuff on history’s pages. (Not that Davis would have run. But he was a far better man than Kerry. Much less embarrassing. No personality. But not problems with a naval career that was a sham. And, then an anti-Vietnam stance that haunts him as much as it does Jane Fonda.) Jane Fonda has the hetter plastic surgeon. (But her marriage to Ted Turner, I’d think could be compared to the Katcup queen’s madness.) What some people will do for money! But I “soitenly” digress.

Anyway, back to the photographs. It’s good you’ve planted DeLay’s on the right. And, it’s worth noting he sure knows how to please his constituents while staying viable politically.

I know Michael Shiavo called just called DeLay a “slithering snake.” That’s interesting. In Eden, the snake had sex appeal. And, legs. But, if we stick with this “snake” thing? What about a life sized cobra that when he attacks eats people?

Pelosi has a big mouth. But she can’t do a thing with an opponent. When betting, place your money on DeLay.

Mar 22, 2005 - 11:29 am 8. PeterArgus:

Heh! Between the two of them I think they have every government-intrusion-in-your-life base covered.

But seriously. I’ve almost always been a political independent who usually voted Republican but occasionally veered towards some Dem candidates. There have been 2 times in my life where I have registered Republican. First time was back in the late 80s and I was a young man living in Atlanta. At the time I generally liked Republican positions but was really concerned about the increasing influence of the Christian Right in the party – particularly in reference to positions on teaching creationism in school. (Don’t get me wrong, Christians have as much right as anyone to voice opinions. I was just finding them to be a bit, well, intolerant of other viewpoints.) So I thought, rather than sit on the sidelines and say nothing I would join the party and become involved in the local scene. It didn’t take me long to realize that it wasn’t my opinion that was wanted but my money of which I had none.

Second time around has been since 9/11. For the past 3-4 years it seemed to me the Republicans have been right on all the important issues. I was just on the verge of declaring party affliation but then the last 2 weeks happened: proposals to censor cable tv, baseball/steroid investigation, congressional intrusion into family disputes over right-to-die/life issues.

Nope the Republicans want to be a Nanny party too. Sorry guys/girls I am going to stay a G’damned Independent.

Mar 22, 2005 - 12:13 pm 9. Terrye:

I may not agree with everything Tom Delay says or does but he is way smarter than Pelosi.

And besides, I don’t think people are being fair about this whole issue. You can say Congress has no business in health care, but this nonsense of it is a crime to leave the tube in in one state and a crime to take it out in another is kind of unnerving not to mention ridiculous.

What is medicaid if not the government? Who do you think pays for long term care of all these people? I work in health care and I am up to my eyeballs in government regs that exist because some individual somewhere damn well demanded that they be there. I can be sued and fired for saying a patient’s name, that is HIPPA. I can be jailed or fined for not putting times down right on my time sheets. That is fraud. And it goes on and on but when it comes to something as unimportant as life and death when the people who are charged on a state and local level to make the decisions can not seem to do it then all of a sudden the government has no place…if the court and the state disagree and the family can not agree, then what? We let the court decide. Then why have a state legislature?

Tell you what, you want to cut medicaid? Just shut down all those long term care facilities and if the folks die, they die.

But remember there was a time when people said that the government was being intrusive for integrating the schools.

Mar 22, 2005 - 12:39 pm 10. Terrye:

Peter:

I heard a lot more Democrats arguing for the baseball thing than conservatives.

Mar 22, 2005 - 12:42 pm 11. thibaud:

The party of the working man, led by a millionaire socialite from the TrustFundHippie Republic. The anti-Washington party, led by a corrupt hack who’s raised gerrymandering to a new level. Each party agrees that Congressional elections should not be competitive, and have together created an electoral process that returns a higher percentage of incumbents (north of 96%) than the Soviet Union ever did.

A pox on both your houses

Mar 22, 2005 - 12:57 pm 12. thibaud:

This Schiavo farce reminds me why I’ll never be a Republican. Why the F*** is this any business of Congress? What on earth is conservative about Washington intervening at this hour in this manner?

It’s obvious that neither party really stands for anything coherent beyond absurd posturing on social issues and dishing out pork for their core interest groups.

Time for a third party– tough on national security issues, liberal/libertarian on social issues, sensible and pragmatic on economic issues. One that will take on the fundamentalists in both camps, the NEA and the public sector union shakedown artists as well as the evangelical nuts and the porkivorous energy and farm lobbies. A party exemplified by Arnold, Giuliani, McCain, the new Hillary, Condi.

Mar 22, 2005 - 1:03 pm 13. thibaud:

The main reason that such a party has not sprung into existence is decades of gerrymandering by both parties, the result of which is districts that are overwhelmingly tilted to one party or the other. This Dem-Repub game favors extremists and irresponsible behavior by both sides, as neither party needs to appeal to the center because the race in each of these congressional districts never gets closer than 56-41. Conservative Republicans in California prefer this, as do leftist Dems in the cotton belt, because it ensures these ideologues’ hold on their respective parties. Right-wingers in Orange County are happy; so are left-leaning statists in hardcore urban blue outposts across the south.

The loser in all of this is? That majority of US voters who are sane, moderate and who want their government back from the posturing Dem-Repub politburo.

Mar 22, 2005 - 1:10 pm 14. Terrye:

thibaud:

A farce??

Since when is civil rights a farce?

Our medical knowledge is outpacing our ethics. There are tens of thousands of people like this all over the country and many of them are on public assitance. And there are more if you include all the people in long term facilities and the numbers are growing.

If this is not the business of our elected officials, what is?

Why the hell should I care if LA gets another freaking highway?

Why the hell should I care if some other woman can get an abortion? It ain’t my problem.

Why the hell should I care if a child molestor is running loose? I don’t have kids.[obviously I am being facetious]

The public welfare is the issue and we need to decide when to let people die and if we are going to do that a lethal injection would be more humane than this. They can not even wet her lips. Where does that leave health care professionals?

I am thinking of looking for another job. I am tired of watching people die. I am tired of filling out the paper work for the government. I am tried of worrying about being sued. I am tired of worrying about being accused of fraud and fined. I am tired of worrying about getting dragged into some family feud.

I have no desire to stand by and watch some woman die because a state judge said so.

They don’t pay me enough.

So this is my last post on this.

Mar 22, 2005 - 1:23 pm 15. Jim Rockford:

On a pure politics level Pelosi is incompetent.

She allowed DeLay to roll her over without making a downside to his play. Why not, if this thing was sure of passage, bring your troops on and add a requirement for an independent, report to Congress, evaluation of Schiavo, by a panel of neutral experts?

If it comes out that definitively, yes Schiavo has no brain function, DeLay looks awful and that’s his downside. Even better to add in a requirement for Advanced Medical Directives when you get your Driver’s License. Dems are supposed to be the solution party.

Instead Pelosi lauds the Husband whom the populace is deeply suspicious of, given his two kids with another woman. That just doesn’t play well.

If DeLay wants to demagogue, make a downside. Right now he has none, and where is Howard Dean, MD? The great political leader?

None of the stuff I’ve suggested is rocket science, it’s just obvious. It’s as if Pelosi and the Dems are basically not interested in politics and winning. Jeez.

Mar 22, 2005 - 2:05 pm 16. Buddy Larsen:

Look for a new phrase to emerge, the ‘national security Democrats’. By this time next year, Lieberman, Baye, Hillary C., Biden, H. Ford, these folks will have helped Dean fulfill his promise–the one he doesn’t know he has made–to gently escort Pelosi and the Halliburton Chorus over to the de-facto third-party bleachers, where they can’t do any further damage to the Free World.

Mar 22, 2005 - 2:37 pm 17. Terrye:

Barney:

Don’t forget that Bayh voted against Condi Rice.

And he does not believe in doing anything that would make the rich guys on Wall Street happy. After all the fact that he is a rich boy with investments of his own does not mean he is not one of regualr people.

I am from Indiana. Bayh is more reasonable than Pelosi because he is from a red state, but he is what he is.

Mar 22, 2005 - 2:50 pm 18. Buddy Larsen:

Terrye, for sure, he did pull the Hillary about-face on OIF, but if we’re talking about policy then whether or not he’s a weathervane is less important if the wind is blowing in the right direction. Of all thiose folks, only Lieberman strikes me as having principles above politics. And I have to forget the 2000 campaign to feel even that sanguine about the party. Well, gotta go, Sheriff Andy just hollered, Otis is drunk again, I have to requisition my bullet and go bring him in.

Mar 22, 2005 - 3:01 pm 19. Carol_Herman:

Don’t confuse the house and senate. Bayh leader is Harry Reid.

We’ve become way too politicized. It’s strange to watch. Because when Nixon was president, the senate only had 35 republicans. That’s when the senate lurched into weakening the presidency.

And, that’s when the democrats became moonbats. Hedrick Smith wrote an interesting book called POWER GAMES. And, in it Tip O’Niell was in the House, riding against Reagan.

The dems spent an enormous amount of capital trying to screw republican presidents. And, this president certainly learned what happened when his dad trusted democrats in Congress!

It’s still something of a mud fight; but I’m very impressed with the way republicans are organizing themselves. Not quite a “team” yet … but getting better and better.

As to the conservative agenda, I’m not so sure Bush isn’t trying to accomplish a CENTER agenda; while he brings very decent ideas forward into the mainstream.

I can’t remember which of our first presidents hated reading the morning papers; but understood, too, that there’s nothing else out there to match our democracy.

The MSM got in much too tight with the democratic party. And, after reading TREASON by Ann Coulter, it dawned on me that we’ve been attacked from the inside by the monsters of communism and fascism; that still comes out as postures of isolationism. Pat Buchanan on the right, and the moonbats on the left, actually share agendas.

And, the president has to keep a steady course.

I still can’t get it out of my head that a DC Supreme Court seat will soon open up. And, I wouldn’t be surprised if he sends Bork back up there for approval. Bush really doesn’t shy away from fights. But he picks his picks very carefully.

You don’t win without strategy.

And, you don’t win if you can’t take it when an ally, like Italy, goes and dumps millions into the terrorist cesspool in Iraq, to ransom a woman who actually roots for her captors. (Would we have known anything at all, if our troops, following regular military procedure had not shot Italy’s top intelligence officer? Who just happened to evade a checkpoint, knowing if he reached the plane there was an appointed American Colonel just waiting to shoo away our forces on the ground.

Did the MSM ever ask to interview this colonel? Why not? They couldn’t wait to interview Rummy over Al-Grubby.

And, now that we’re watching torture, right here, in America, wondering in what shape Terri Shiavo is in today, her fifth day without food or water … what are you thinking?

Do you remember Waco and Janet Reno’s use of army tanks against kids? You ever saw army tanks on American streets in a stand-off? She got those tanks from Wesley Clark’s army base.

You know what gives me hope about America’s common sense? When Reno and Clark wanted political positions to compete in elections; they got bumped by their own. Clark didn’t even last a week among the dwarves. And, who ran against Jeb the last time? It wasn’t Reno!

There’s hope. Though I doubt if intervention now would work for Terri. Still, she’s like a benificent organ donor. She held on for 15 years in spite of torture. When so many people give up and embrace death who have more going that she does. (Notice, too, she’s not getting another heart attack, even though she’s older. And, without food. So how come she got one when she was 26?)

Terri is leaving us with a lot of questions left to ask.

And, among other things, she’s leaving us knowing that her parents saw her ALIVE! And, well. And, loved. To them she wasn’t a piece of superfluous garbage. Yes. Sad. Sad all around. And, even sad for some who argued well for reinserting the feeding tube. Shame is on the way for the moonbats. Justice will be recognized at some point, ahead. (And, Michael can go an enjoy golfing with OJ. Who cares?)

Mar 22, 2005 - 3:22 pm 20. asher:

Sorry, Roger … I think I’ve got a better match.

Mar 22, 2005 - 3:54 pm 21. Buddy Larsen:

…with click #2 offering a bonus second-look at whatever you had for lunch.

Mar 22, 2005 - 4:28 pm 22. Mike G in San Diego:

“It’s hard to explain how these two could be leading our two major parties in the House of Representatives. ”

Ah. Is old Russian proverb:

“Whether the water be salt or fresh … sh*t floats!”

Mar 22, 2005 - 5:12 pm 23. JenLArt:

Roger, I don’t appreciate this–it’s the cheapest kind of cheap shot…to make fun of their “looks.”

Pelosi is a fraud, a shrew and a party hack who gives all women like me who are professionals a bad name and who makes “aging with grace” a joke for older women, too.

Tom DeLay is a good, decent man and a vocal friend of Israel, inter alia.

DeLay defends Life, Pelosi and her crew embrace Death.

It’s funny how when the going gets tough, you always revert to your default “Lib Dem” position;

while you can’t defend Pelosi, you try to denigrate the Right, not on the merits of their ideas and platform, but by superficial ad hominem.

It’s “popular” to make fun of DeLay among the Leftist sneering crowd, but I think a smart man like you is capable of much, much better.

Next time, listen to what DeLay is saying very carefully.

He makes more sense and says what is true than you’d imagine.

Mar 22, 2005 - 5:26 pm 24. Terrye:

Buddy:

I am so sorry I called you Barney. I have no idea why I did that.

Aunt Bee

Mar 22, 2005 - 5:41 pm 25. Buddy Larsen:

Whoa there, JenLArt, it’ll take more’n a few paragraphs to explain Tom DeLay to anyone not from a state that a couple decades ago had elected ZERO Republican high state-officeholders since the Civil War…nor how brass-knuckle the state Democrats are, and what it takes to cope with ‘em. And where did anyone make fun of Nancy Pelosi’s age or gender…it’s her expression that gets the guffaws…the more-I-lie-the-wider-I-open-my-eyes trick that she thinks is her secret. Please, let’s us southreners not go to feudin’ with these hyar Yankees n’ Californees ’til we gits ‘em fur nuf off in th’ woods whur they cain’t holler fer hep.

Aunt Bee, why tha’s okay, in fact i got a big laugh!

Mar 22, 2005 - 8:45 pm 26. Terrye:

Buddy:

Oh my God…Don’t ever do that again.

One thing I will say for Delay, he has held up some of the money that was supposed to go to the Palestinians, until and unless they do what they are supposed to do.

Delay used to drive me nuts, but I am getting used to him. After all I grew up in Oklahoma.

Hell yes.

Mar 22, 2005 - 9:08 pm 27. Carol_Herman:

Yes, Terrye, Tom DeLay stopped a Congressional payment of $200-million smackeroo’s from getting into the hands of the PA, as it currently is. And, they won’t see this annual money until they end terrorism. DeLay has guts. He’s decent. And, as Buddy (Barney) Larsen, the Texans had LBJ and democrats wall to wall. So, yes, I do credit Tom DeLay, Bush, and Karl Rove for knowing how to get Texans to change parties.

In the presidency Bush by 2004 had achieved success and recognition with the American People. However, in Texas he OWNED THIS … from his days as the owner of their major baseball franchise; and then as governor.

This president has put together one of the best teams in government, in the executive office, and beyond, into the Congress, that most of us never saw before.

LBJ ruled with an iron hand. And, he actually made such terrible war decisions, and unrealistic decisions, domestically, that it’s no wonder today the democrats are in such deep trouble.

But you can’t win without besting your opponents. Delay knows how to do this. Pelosi? Barbara Boxer? Bookend bimbos.

Mar 22, 2005 - 9:30 pm 28. Buddy Larsen:

carol, yes, little do people know the history behind the notorious gerrymandering, how the Dems when they owned the joint set up those rules with the purest cynicism. Delay merely gave them an object lesson in understanding the motion of the wheel–a necessary first step to any reform. A less gutsy, more expedient feller would’ve pre-kowtowed to the certain negative publicity avalanch and dropped the hot potato long before he picked it up.

Sorry, Terrye…guess that was a pretty horrible thing to open. Asher started it, though, Aunt Bee. Oklahoma? I guess you know, the way you can tell an Oklahoman is if his ma leaves the Marlboro in her mouth while she’s tellin’ the highway patrolman to kiss her behind. (sorry, old OU Weekend joke)

Mar 22, 2005 - 10:33 pm 29. Terrye:

Buddy:

Just don’t call me an Okie. I can call me an Okie, but nobody else can.

My Daddy used to say that my first words were kiss my ass.

Mar 23, 2005 - 3:11 am 30. Buddy Larsen:

So true about ‘Okie”…it’s somehow a little too mean-spirited to use even in the joke round. Must go back to Steinbeck and those starved-out dustbowlers still in living memory. There’s a photo, a mother, a skinny, careworn 30-something, trying to make do for a bunch of toddlers from a broke-down model T on the side of some God-forsaken dirt road…headin’ to better pastures no doubt…but there’s the world of hurt in her eyes…but she’s too proud to admit it…you probably know that pic. Anyhoo, fie on whoever’d call her an Okie. So, same for everybody else too.

Mar 23, 2005 - 9:26 am 31. Carol_Herman:

Terrye, and, Buddy Larsen. You’ve made my day. I’ve spilled my coffee, running it first throuh my nose, down the front of my jammies. More than ever, I want to visit Oklahoma now!

Mar 23, 2005 - 10:19 am 32. Buddy Larsen:

Carol, venturing a guess from your inside descriptions of Knesset (and “Arik” Sharon–which I’d never heard before), I’d place you writing from Israel. So, Oklahoma ain’t no short trip for you. Suggest in the interim rent a DVD, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!”, the 50s film made from the 40s stage musical. I dunno how them city boys did it, but they nailed that first few post-frontier southern Great Plains generations, perfectly–and in truly magnificent song and dance–even if you don’t really much like song and dance–within an actual story, a plain old boy-meets-girl story with natural subplots all over the place (where they are in real life), human nature, vice and virtue, the land and the weather, politics and ambition, love and loss, all there in Americana language; it’s a full, full thing, that film. And i’m not much for ‘big’ epics–”Oklahoma!” was a forced-watch via a daughter taking dance some years ago–but it’s become an ritual (along w/ several Kubrick and Coen Brother’s films): Every year or so the thought appears “Hey, it’s gettin’ to be time to watch “Oklahoma!” again!” Anyhoo, the off-screen part of the story is just as good, the reach out from the eastern seaboard to mythologize those plainsmen–by both the authors and the audiences who followed–is sweet nostalgia in itself (America knitting itself together), the incredible explosion of new music in 20s-40s America, the sheer exuberance and talent of the whole project, it’s all pretty amazing. Try it. You’ll laugh and you’ll cry. I guaran-damn-tee ya, you’ll thank me for the suggestion.

Mar 23, 2005 - 11:07 am

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