235 Comments

1. Delia:

“When does the housecleaning start?”

When we rise up and refuse to let our dollars turn to dust.

Maybe it’s too late.

I’m scared.

Oct 21, 2009 - 4:17 pm 2. Charlie (Colorado):

The hell of it is that, under it all, she sorta kinda had a point she was making. “You fight your war, I’ll fight mine” is good advice: don’t be bound by your opponent’s thinking, get inside the opponent’s OODA loop, “Attack where they are not prepared, go out to where they do not expect” as Sunzi said.

Hell, I’ve got a copy of the Little Red Book myself.

The issue is in the “favorite political philosopher” part. Whether her immediate point was good, admiration for the old fat bastard himself is hard to imagine.

Oct 21, 2009 - 4:34 pm 3. Maggie:

I understood she was speaking to high school students who probably knew next to nothing about Mao’s atrocities. To hear the cretin idolized by a high level United States government representative is atrocious.

Oct 21, 2009 - 6:03 pm 4. zhombre:

I can’t conceive of the mind that would pair Mao Zedong and Mother Teresa and hold them up as exemplars of political philosophy. Ms. Dunn is a certifiable idiot. She should not hold a position with the government higher than assistant librarian. She should not be lecturing impressionable minds. This is nuts. Every day I feel that I was born in the United States of America but now in advanced middle age find myself living in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Farce.

Oct 21, 2009 - 6:24 pm 5. Roger L Simon:

Many people have copies of the Little Red Book, Charlie. I had several, as well as a copy of Mao’s poetry, if you can believe it. I also visited China in the late seventies and wrote a novel about it – Peking Duck – whitewashing what I saw. So maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on Dunn. But it is many years later now and many studies have come out showing Mao killed roughly 70 million, more even than Hitler or Stalin, butchery beyond comprehension. Only a true moral nitwit would say anything approving of Mao now.

Oct 21, 2009 - 6:26 pm 6. ambisinistral:

Obama’s running the country like he ran the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. He’s dishing out money to his buddies. The fact that they pocket half of it and piss the rest away doesn’t register with him because they’ll be sure to give him a plaque and tell him what a swell guy he is at the end of the day.

When he ran the Annenberg Challenge he had people who had to approach him as supplicants to get their proposals approved. There was no political horse trading involved, just his thumb up or thumb down. With his endless hectoring and brow-beating of business men and the like, it seems obvious that he is in the same mindset. My guess is he is genuinely puzzled why his early momentem has stalled so badly. He’ll never get it back.

Is he dumb? Yea. He’s also out of his league. Compared to the national and international stages, the south side of Chicago is but a puddle.

Oct 21, 2009 - 6:28 pm 7. southernsue:

the stage has been set and the lines are now being drawn. ex. all the fast policies, as many as they can, that have been put forth, confusion for all including democrats, also, now who is on my side and who is not on my side, ex. the fuede with fox and conservative radio.

now america do which side do we choose? the lines have been drawn, you are either on the democratic side or the republican side. and by the way, this is not the time for a third party because it always splits the republican party vote and gives us democrats.

mid-term elections are aproaching , we must be informed of our candidates and their voting records and personal beliefs and behavior more than ever.

be at the polls in 2010!

may GOD have mercy on our blessed country! imho

Oct 21, 2009 - 6:46 pm 8. John:

Roger —

Dunn could say what she said, and others like Van Jones could say what they say, because up until the new era of cellphone cameras and YouTube, they could be confident that none of these remarks were going to be seen as newsworthy by the regular big media outlets.

It was in a way the opposite of the recent Rush Limbaugh-NFL controversy. Rush was being profiled on “60 Minutes” way back in 1990, just two years after starting his national show, so there was no way those quotes attributed to him supposedly from the late 90s could have been true, because the big media pretty much had a GPS device honing in on his every public appearance and microphones and recorders capturing his every utterance waiting for that one fatal slip-up. In contrast, someone in as high a profile position with the Obama campaign as Dunn could say anything she wanted with confidence that as along as there wasn’t some guy with a video camera that said ‘Fox News’ in the room, nothing controversial she said was going become a wide-scale problem.

Oct 21, 2009 - 6:51 pm 9. Minerva:

Roger, to us YOU are the “Great Helmsman”!

Oct 21, 2009 - 6:55 pm 10. Roger L Simon:

Ah, Minerva, that is the nicest thing anyone has said to me in a long time – especially online. Takes me back to the days I used to join the San Francisco Mime Troupe in a rousing version “Poppa Mao Mao Mao, Poppa Mao Tse Tung.”

Oct 21, 2009 - 7:02 pm 11. Delia:

I’m JELLLLLLLLY!

Minerva got a shout out from the great Roger L. Simon!

*sulks*

J/K’

You were ‘write’ on the moula Minvera. Good on you for calling him right!

Oct 21, 2009 - 8:10 pm 12. aclay1:

You’ve got it all wrong – we’re just not smart enough to understand the Obamanoids.

They employ Schrodingerian sarcasm. Their statements are either sarcasm or they are not, until you question them. If you don’t question them, the statements are serious. If you question them and their content reflects badly on the speaker, it’s sarcasm.

Oct 21, 2009 - 9:03 pm 13. Victor Erimita:

It was a high school graduation. Fox had a father who was there at his daughter’s graduation, and he said it was very inappropriate and uncomfortable in there.

Of course, Roger is right that she was “being cool.” That is what drives Baby Boomers most, isn’t it? And nothing seems cooler to one of these university-cloistered pseudo-intellectuals than being an iconoclast. I see through the superficialities of tens of millions murdered to the great political philosopher below. Oliver Stone and Sean Penn are cool because they are intellectually deep, and they are intellectually deep because they see through the simpletons who demonize Hugo Chavez. This descends from the artistes and intellectuals of 19th-century France and other European communities, where the intellectuals became a self-appointed elite, distinguished by the fact they simply weren’t everyone else. Anita Dunn is ever so daring, ever so iconoclastic, ever so deep a thinker, because she sees what us ordinary morons are too bourgeois to see.

Oct 21, 2009 - 10:17 pm 14. David Thomson:

“Team Obama certainly ran a brilliant election campaign”

Team Obama only ran a moderately decent election campaign. It had the MSM in their pocket—and that made most of the difference. At best, it earned a C+ grade. The second biggest factor was probably the inept and politically correct campaign of John McCain. The stuff has finally hit the fan because there is only so much the legacy media can do to provide cover for Obama’s inept administration.

Oct 21, 2009 - 11:34 pm 15. Barry Meislin:

Will the definition of “former Obama supporter” soon be: “Someone who was Mao’d by reality”?

Stay tuned…

Hat tip: Gates of Vienna

Oct 22, 2009 - 1:22 am 16. D. Ch.:

Since the MSM was in the tank for Obama, he could run as a left-centrist in the campaign even though, just from looking at his votes as a senator and his associates (Wright, Ayers), it was very clear he lived on the far left politically. His pseudo-academic, “just analyzing” style of speaking also was — and still is — a great help in disguising how close his basic attitudes and political views are to those of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. That seems smart, indeed “brilliant”, if winning the campaign is all that matters. However now that he’s in office, he will get slowly crucified if he tries to govern as the leftist he is; and, if he tries to govern as the left-moderate he ran as, his executive inexperience will be compounded by his inability to think in those terms …

Oct 22, 2009 - 1:59 am 17. Pajamas Media » Is the White House Gang As Dumb As They Seem?:

[...] Read the entire piece here. [...]

Oct 22, 2009 - 2:17 am 18. AL:

Dunn (and any other leftys) admiration for Mao has much deeper roots. It is not that Mao was the most successful mass-murderer in human history, or the most notorious Marxist. It is his status as most successful mass-pedophile which assures leftist’s admiration.

P.S. Any questions why leftists are in love with muslims?

Oct 22, 2009 - 3:05 am 19. Marc Malone:

They are NOT that stupid. NO, they are ideologues. They actually believe this stuff. They are not stupid. They are fools. Bright fools are still fools. they are just better at being fools.

They know they are trying to complete the revolution. They know they have limited time. They just don’t know that it can’t be done here. At least, not yet.

They thought they had a mandate. They discovered they didn’t. Rather than show a little patience, they’ve over-reached. All they had to do was wait, and allow the economy to recover a bit before they tried anything else, and they could have won. Now their purposes have been exposed.

Btw, the next Prez needs to give Beck a Presidential Freedom Medal. He should also get the next Pulitzer for exposing the entire sham Whitehouse crew, and ACORN, and Apollo Alliance, and…. He is exposing a vast revolutionary conspiracy. He’ll never get it, of course, however well-deserved.

Oct 22, 2009 - 3:24 am 20. Eowyn:

Nos. 12 and 13, absolutely brilliant, both of you.

Oct 22, 2009 - 3:30 am 21. eon:

Actually, once more we see what our “enlightened elites’” consider The Big Problem in action.

From the EE POV, Dunn is being pilloried for saying something they don’t consider wrong, controversial, or even a non sequiter’. Comparing Mao to Mother Teresa and stating that you admire the former and consider the latter a “revolutionary activist” is an entirely mainstream idea- at a faculty brunch in any Ivy League university. Such opinions are not considered outre’ among the denizens thereof, most of whom also admire Saul Alinsky. His dreamed-of “Long March through the academies” has had the effect he desired- an entire generation of revolutionary radicals pretending to be scholars. (They’ve even succeeded in putting one in the White House, after three tries in the last decade.)

To such people, what Dunn said isn’t merely non-controversial, it’s admirable. To incur their ire, you’d have to say something really bizarre and crazy, like “Ronald Reagan was a good President” or ” JFK wouldn’t be welcome in modern liberal circles”. Even or especially if both statements could be documented as factual.

The fact that the rest of us consider Dunn’s statement as both inappropriate and borderline nutty is, to the academic radicals, proof that we really are as stupid, ignorant, bigoted, “unenlightened”, etc., etc., as they believe us to be- because we don’t think the way they do.

The Big Problem- according to them- is not just that we don’t agree with them, or believe they are as brilliant as they do. It’s also that we can tell them “No” when they want to “make everything perfect forever”- with themselves in unchallengeable control. Based on their (self-perceived) superiority and “fitness to rule”, of course.

Circular reasoning is no substitute for actual thought based on actual facts. But due to their infatuation with mysticism, in both its spiritual (Eastern philosophies, including Islamism) and purely concrete forms (socialism and Platonic “Republicanism”, i.e. a “Dictatorship of the [Self-] Chosen”), our “enlightened elite’” rejected Western linear logic a long time ago, as too “cold and unfeeling”. The fact that they have replaced it with belief systems that are even more so, in fact are unfailingly brutal toward humanity as a whole, is irrelevant; all that matters to them is basking in the warmth of their own smug self-regard.

And being able to punish anyone who questions their “fitness to rule”, of course.

Instead of being exercised by what Dunn said, perhaps the rest of us who constitute what the elite’ think of as the “great unwashed” should be asking, “Does anyone in this Administration actually disagree with her, especially about Mao?”

clear ether

eon

Oct 22, 2009 - 3:41 am 22. David P:

“When does the housecleaning start?”

Good luck, this Trojan Horse administration will squander away a century of progress in less then 4 years, call it a “social justice” for Americans, Obama style.

Oct 22, 2009 - 3:52 am 23. Francis W. Porretto:

One implication of recent Obamunist gaffery is that Obama’s supposed political skills were inflated by the Main Stream Media, both in appearance and effect, during Campaign 2008. Why not, after all? The puffery needn’t have been restricted to him and his wife. The MSM were in love with the idea of “the first black president.” They were plainly willing to do anything they could to advance Obama’s prospects, including portraying his political acumen as being far greater than it really is, the better to demoralize his opponents.

The McCain campaign pitched in by being singularly lackluster, creating a contrast that gave credibility to the “great politician Obama” canard. The tactics Obama and his backers used to defeat his previous rivals for the Senate, detailed in Ann Coulter’s book Guilty, cast an unpleasant light on this “master politician.” There, too, the calumnized rivals refrained from fighting back effectively…and so we got the mythos of Obama the politician of millennial stature. Hey, so what if he knows nothing about governance and has never achieved anything in public service? He knows how to work the crowd!

(The media did it for the Clintons, too. Remember “master politician” Bill, who didn’t win a majority of the votes in either of his presidential campaigns?)

Oct 22, 2009 - 4:07 am 24. swisslady:

I am still amazed why so many seemingly intelligent people in the US fell for Obama? The story about his Preacher SAID IT ALL about his character.
He is a good orator but he grins too much and has too many teeth!

Oct 22, 2009 - 4:40 am 25. Gringo:

Roger, this comment has nothing to do with your article, but on the layout of the PJM web pages. I am addressing it to you because you are one of the founding fathers. I find it very annoying that the articles are not on one page. I like being able to see the articles on one page.

Oct 22, 2009 - 4:43 am 26. SAF:

Anita Dunn said what she said because she was being honest. Now that it might be politically unwise is another story. This is one of the reasons Obama needs to shut down Fox. Without Fox reporting outrage there is no harm. Easier to control one thing, Fox, as opposed to all your minions.

Oct 22, 2009 - 4:44 am 27. cfbleachers:

Not sure why the surprise at leftist extremists having idols that are…leftist extremists.

It perhaps WOULD be a surprise…if this administration, even from the early days of the campaign didn’t have its campfire drift an ember or two into the following tents:

Frank Marshall Davis
Carl Davidson
Posters of Che Guevara
Sam Graham-Felsen
New Party
Jeremiah Wright
Michael Pfleger
William Ayers
Democratic Socialists of America
Committees of Correspondence
ACORN
Van Jones

There is a persistent sympathetic ear to the far left, lefter, leftist reaches of society. An anti-capitalism tinge to the outer, middle…and even inner circle of friends, associates, mentors and advisors.

Hilda Solis, David Bonior, Carol Browner…let’s be as frank about this as humanly possible. It is not any real surprise that these folks would admire Mao and actually be Mao-ists. It is not unusual that they would also touch on folks like Farrakhan.

There perhaps is no need to revisit the “fellow travelers” argument. For the time being, suffice it to say that there is not a lot of discomfort around any or all of these folks and their ideas about America, politics and the far reaches of the left end of the political spectrum.

When the true believers call Fidel “an agrarian reformer” and whitewash the horrific issues in Cuba, or whitewash the bloodbath in Cambodia, or whitewash Mao’s brutality and mass murder…it’s not ignorance of the facts on the ground or the sea of blood left behind…it’s revisionist history at its finest.

David Horowitz, Roger Simon, David Mamet can teach us all how this works, they lived it…and then stopped believing the Big Lie that surrounds this movement.

The entrenched media, academia, and Hollywood have their chips “all in” with the “movement” and parrot the “message” on cue.

The fox is in the hen house and is now standing guard. The alarms have been disconnected by our lovely media. The ties to fundamentalist Islam are well disguised….with our backs turned against Israel neatly disguised as well.

The unions are in on the game, as is the Soros led “think tanks” and internet troll machine.

We are outflanked, outmaneuvered, out-PR’d, out-campaigned, and out-voted. The folks opposing this creeping infestation for the past 40 years have been asleep at the switch. There is no candidate with charisma and oratory skills to galvanize around. The issues have been all framed and disseminated ad infinitum by the “message” zombies.

The Big Lie has become accepted as “truth”.

Why is anyone surprised? Why, indeed.

Oct 22, 2009 - 4:50 am 28. BC:

I dunno, they haven’t invaded the wrong country yet, made a complete botch of a hurricane emergency, or let the economy get punk’d by “smart guy” financiers.

Oct 22, 2009 - 4:55 am 29. Gringo:

@ 6. ambisinistral:

I agree with you that Obama’s “running” the Annenberg Challenge is important, because as far as I can tell, it is his only previous executive experience. We should not be surprised that he cannot stand up to Putin. After all, he couldn’t stand up to the flim-flam artists who were soliciting funds for their “research projects” and inform them that given previous research, it is unlikely that they had a viable proposal.OTOH, I doubt he even considered turning down any projects. Ayers and company steered their friends to the Challenge, and all Obama did was rubber stamp them. Great executive experience.

Oct 22, 2009 - 4:56 am 30. Gary Ogletree:

Smart, but not wise, as Sitting Bull used to say. Smart enough to get elected and turn the media into faithful acolytes. But clueless where it counts. Imagine all the books that will be written to explain why the Age of Obama became the Obama Disaster. They would be smart to stop believing their own propaganda, won’t happen. Sun Tzu would have a field day outlining their weaknesses.

Oct 22, 2009 - 4:59 am 31. UsaBruce:

While Dunn may go down to ridicule, and the seeming ineptness of Obama to do anything right in his governance of our country could lull one into thinking this Administration is dumb. The problem with that is thinking that their goal is the betterment of America. If their true goal is to tear down the country with the intent of rebuilding it into a Socialist utopia, then they have planned and executed brilliantly. Upon entering office they initiated a blitzrieg of measures and policies that have overwhelmed the system. Sound familiar? Obama has inserted key czars in critical policy making positions that will totally transform our country from the inside without Congressional oversight. They may lose a player like Dunn, but that does no real harm to the overall agenda. They are not dumb, they are brilliantly evil, and they still may win.

Oct 22, 2009 - 5:08 am 32. ~Paules:

History records that the Chinese Communist Party was able to nudge Mao aside after his economic policies proved disastrous. Dunn apparently doesn’t know the rest of the story. Mao made a comeback based on his cult of personality. He claimed to tolerate dissent in the Hundred Flowers Campaign, only to reverse course and purge the country of a half-million former supporters. He rallied millions of revolutionary youth to his banner and established himself as dictator. If Dunn were not such a dolt, she would find the story not admirable, but chilling.

While Mr. Obama might share in common with Mao a cult of personality, I doubt the president has the old peasant’s cunning or casual indifference to suffering so necessary to become a successful tyrant. Nevertheless, he will leave significant wreckage in his wake. His policies show no more understanding of economic reality than did Mao’s and the results will be similar if not quite as catastrophic. There will be dark days ahead.

Oct 22, 2009 - 5:09 am 33. Paul -Indiana:

You know who you are … Are you still proud that you voted for Obama? Really? Cross your heart? {ROFLMAO}

Oct 22, 2009 - 5:17 am 34. Paul -Indiana:

#18 Al. P.S. Any questions why leftists are in love with muslims?
=====================================================
It’s one totalitarian respecting another.

Oct 22, 2009 - 5:26 am 35. Booker T. Gain:

Ms. Dunn is a certifiable idiot. She should not hold a position with the government higher than assistant librarian.

She should not hold any government position. And neither should the thug who appointed her. The clean up won’t start until the Undocumented President is challenged on every marxist-inspired decision.

With 90 % of the media still in the tank for Obama the clean up isn’t going to start anytime soon.

Oct 22, 2009 - 5:30 am 36. biblio44:

“[NOTE TO TROLLS: Spare us the argument she was being ironic.”

NOTE TO A-HOLES: “neither are philosophers,” so by citing them as such she was being … guess what? … ironic! (But it’s nice to see you joining in the name-calling, Rog.)

“What fascinates in all this – and potentially gives us scary insight into the Obama crew – is the following from Wikipedia about Dunn: During the presidential transition of 2008-09, Dunn trained White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.”

Yeah, it’s “scary” all right. She obviously trained him in Maoist thought & strategy.

“Only a true moral nitwit would say anything approving of Mao now.”

Oops! You forgot to preemptively excuse Newt.

18. AL: “Dunn (and any other leftys) admiration for Mao has much deeper roots. It is not that Mao was the most successful mass-murderer in human history, or the most notorious Marxist. It is his status as most successful mass-pedophile which assures leftist’s admiration.
P.S. Any questions why leftists are in love with muslims?”

Did someone say … stupid? Congrats, Roger! I think you’ve found your audience – and your ilk.

Oct 22, 2009 - 5:40 am 37. Mike:

For #28, does selling out Eastern Europe (at least two countries for certain) to the Russians count any? We didn’t invade them, but surely selling them out should count for something.

And as a personal point, I seem to recall two things about that “wrong country”. One, Congress and the US people were behind it when we did it, and two WE WON.

Oct 22, 2009 - 5:57 am 38. howiem:

It’s really not all that bad yet. Just go to govttrack.us and rummage through the garbage they call pending legislation to see what we are in for if the Obamunists get one or two of their major bills through, like deathcare and tax cap and tax. Once they have cowed enough votes to pass ybills they want to we wll begin to see what living under tyranny is really all about. If by some chance the two major current bills are are passed, they will take a step backwards and work bits and pieces into other bills in unrelated areas, like Kerry did with that idiotic museum for the Mary Jo murderer, money that should have gone into ammo and maintenance for the military. The key point is don’t expect these people to give up their plans just because of a setback or two or three. They have waited for many decades to get into a position of power, and they are on the verge of consolidating that power. I keep writing my so-called representatives who have not once replied with anything but a canned email, that talks around the subject and doesn’t come close to addressing my issues. I don’t suppose that I need to mention that they are all Democrats. One doesn’t even bother to respond. But I keep writing anyway. After all there are only three ways to mizimize the damage they can do, neutralize them by pressuring our reps so that they agenda cannot be accomplished by legislation, to vote them out, or remove them by force.

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:15 am 39. Joe:

I doubt if all of it is stupidity. If everything is laid out on the table, then a pattern is clearly visible. And I agree, these are ideologues and if we don’t wake up, we are going to be in such trouble as we have never seen. They are grabbing the hearts and minds of our young people in our schools and colleges. These people are not hesitant to use the power and the money that comes with the office of the presidency and they are using it to further their cause.

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:15 am 40. Pedrosito:

We are faced with a double whammy, Obama’s spending us to ruin and Bernanke sits with his thumb up his a$$ while the dollar tanks.

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:25 am 41. blotto:

biblio44: Don’t you have any other debate tactic other than taking sentences, parsing them, and then adding some kind of retort that mostly does not make sense and is really a non sequitor.

Can you perhaps take the article in toto, and then make your assertions backed up with facts that either discredit or at least bring doubt as to what the writer is advancing.

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:27 am 42. pelaut:

Roger: as a young engineering manager in the 60s I had to contend with engineers from your generation who couldn’t take criticism. I always reached for their ‘bible’, Mao’s Little Red Book, flipped randomly to any page of the gobbledegook and cited a passage. They invariably followed my counsel after that since Mao seemed to back it.

My favorite Mao line from the LRB: “The secret is to care without really caring”.

cfbleachers: You’ve got it most right. Thank you. But…
“David Horowitz, Roger Simon, David Mamet …” are among those that destroyed my country, and perhaps with it, civilization. Though I love and appreciate their debtor’s efforts, especially Horowitz’, grant them no indulgence, nor should they get redemption in this lifetime.
Think of Roger (as he says) hopping up and down with “…the San Francisco Mime Troupe in a rousing version “Poppa Mao Mao Mao, Poppa Mao Tse Tung.” Now the huns are in the palace. They brought them there.

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:29 am 43. venividivici:

Is he dumb? Yea. He’s also out of his league. Compared to the national and international stages, the south side of Chicago is but a puddle.

I have lived in the US all my life and in Chicago for over a decade. I have always said that Chicago should be the country’s capital because its corruption, if taken to the national level, would sour normal people (obviously, not the trolls) on the romanticized notion of government as a force of “compassion” or as a “wise steward” of the economy.

Given Obama’s tanking poll numbers, I’d say that my hypothesis about what would happen if “The Chicago Way” went national has turned out to be correct. Good. I want people to barely be able to refrain from spitting when someone suggests that the government is the ideal solution to a certain problem, unless that is the government’s role according to the Constitution.

My other hypothesis, still a work in progress, is that the housecleaning, when it comes, will be triggered by the forces that even government can’t contain, as James Carville correctly noted, and that is the bond market and currency markets. Governments make policy, but those markets sit in judgment of those policies, which is as it should be.

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:29 am 44. HARRY:

As Marxists the number one goal, beyond health care or the war in Afghanistan, is complete suppression of internal dissent AND the creation of an “Enemies of the Revolution” list. This creates and sustains revolutionary fervor among the committed and gives them an emotionally satisfying experience by dehumanising and targetting the political opposition.

We should all stop looking at team Obama as just another set of operatives and politicians. That is dangerously naive.

These people are marxists and are going to do what Castro, Mao and Chavez, all heroes of theirs, did.

Open your eyes folks. This is not politics as usual.

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:36 am 45. Jeff Weimer:

I was about wonder why there were no trolls yet, but Bilblio showed up – a bit late I might add. They are usually in the top 5 for every front page item on here, with their usual ill-informed snark and petty swipes at the other commenters, complete with ad-hominem as the very first item. I guess they feel they have to get that out of the way immediately, since that means we’ll obviously listen to their subsequent arguments.

Anyhoo, this little contretemps is small beer. We risk losing attention with more important items if we go nuclear over every single thing. It’s a bit like “the boy who cried wolf.” It’s still useful, yes. Another check in the box for a larger moral indictment of the administration.

It’s not surprising, considering the political philosophy in which the President marinated coming up in Chicago – Bill Ayers, Frank Marshall Davis, Mike Klonsky, and (to a lesser degree through Black Liberation Theology) Rev. Wright are all Marxist/Maoists in their philosophy. So it makes a twisted sort of sense that we would find people like her and Van Jones in influential posts in the administration – they simply align with what the President considers perfectly normal.

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:37 am 46. biblio44:

41. blotto: “biblio44: “…Can you perhaps take the article in toto….”

The article in toto reads like it was written by someone who is blotto.

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:42 am 47. homero:

When does the housecleaning start?

WTF was that an attempt at sarcasim Roger?

I think it will start with the 2010 congressional elections and follow with 2012, until then things will just get worse.

lying marxist with deep personality disorders (narcissist) usually don’t get better.

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:43 am 48. Thomas_L......:

They must attack Fox and Rush Limbaugh for telling anything like the truth. Rush especially because after all, the media support for Mr. Obama is exactly what Limbaugh said about Donavan McNabb, only writ large. The media, hell, mostly everyone myself included, liked the idea of a young, smart, successful black president. The reality, however, has nothing to do with anything but the fact that this QB isn’t up to the task presented to him. He’s never understudied with someone who knows the game in something other than theory.

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:49 am 49. Now and Then:

39. pelaut:

“My favorite Mao line from the LRB: “The secret is to care without really caring”.”

So that’s where Karl Rove got “compassionate conservative.” I knew Bush recommended that Karl read Mao, but I didn’t know that he had taken it so literally.

And now that “CP” has given way to “CO” (Conservative Obscurity) the chorus sings its most desperate song to date . . . “You’re dumb.”

What are you gonna do when Medicare E passes . . . hold your breath until you turn blue?

From ABC News/Washington Post Poll: Only 20 percent of adults identify themselves as Republicans – the lowest single number in since 1983. Political independents continue to make up the largest group, at 42 percent of respondents; 33 percent call themselves Democrats.

Fifty-one percent say they would back the Democratic candidate in their congressional district if the elections were held now, while 39 percent would vote for the Republican. Independents split 45 percent for the Democrat, 41 percent for the Republican.

I know, you’d rather have a Fox News Opinion Dynamic Poll . . . allow me . . .
“Do you hate Obama?” . . . 99% said “yes.” It was the highest reading ever on Frank Lunt’z Donkey Kong Meter.

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:51 am 50. Bilgeman:

Mr. Simon;
“When does the housecleaning start?”

That question can be framed to take on some very grim undertones.

Let’s rewind back to last year, when the interviews with the former FBI agent who had infiltrated the William Ayres’ Weather Underground cell surfaced.

As I recall the pertinent bits, he related that members of this group were talking about 25 million people needing to be killed in order to effect their program.

Bill Ayres remains unrepentant for his acivities of those days, and has even claimed that he feels “they didn’t do enough”.

And now we have Ms. Dunn lauding Mao Tse Tung for his philosophy, a system of thought,(if it can rightfully be credited as such), that took tens of millions of lives and untold amounts of human misery.

“Collectivization” was the term for the USSR’s program of political mass-murder of it’s common citizens, and China had the “Cultural Revolution” and the “Great Leap Forward”.

“Housecleaning”,huh?

Be careful what you wish for.

Give me the tyrant with a staff as stupid and as tone-deaf as this one’s have been rather than efficient and effective operatives that further his program.

Obama’s poll numbers have dropped in 10 months to a point that took Bush 6 years to arrive at.

A few more months of this, and Obama might not seek a second term, or the few sane Democrats left in Washington will mount a primary challenge against him a la Kennedy vs. Carter in 1980.

We can only hope to see the back of this fraud in a peaceful and lawful manner.

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:53 am 51. Barry Meislin:

Capitalism, hmmm.

Market share, hmmm.

Profits, hmmm.

Competition, hmmm.

Wouldn’t it be, um, interesting if the MSM, losing money hand over fist for a good while now, would say something like: “Wow, Fox–those guys are on fire. Let’s do what they do, only better!”? Hmmmm.

(Ahh, capitalism. Gotta love it….)

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:56 am 52. biblio44:

45. Jeff Weimer: “I was about wonder why there were no trolls yet, but Bilblio showed up – a bit late I might add. They are usually in the top 5 for every front page item on here, with their usual ill-informed snark and petty swipes….”

Right you are! My swipes have been “petty” (although I’ll challenge the “ill-informed”).

Something like this…
44. HARRY: ‘As Marxists the number one goal, beyond health care or the war in Afghanistan, is complete suppression of internal dissent AND the creation of an “Enemies of the Revolution” list.’
…deserves more than a petty response. So here goes:

All this Obama-hate churned up by the Becks, Birthers, Death-panelers & PJMers leads to this:

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/10/18/secret_service_under_strain_as_leaders_face_more_threats/

I hope this is un-petty enough for you.

Oct 22, 2009 - 7:00 am 53. Jack Olson:

John, the word is “homing” as in “homing pigeon”, not honing, which means to grind or sharpen.

Most of the embarrassments of this embarrassing administration haven’t come from the One himself. Yes, he put egg on his own face when he spoke up about the arrest of Professor Gates and went to Copenhagen to add his star power to Chicago’s Olympic bid. And when he nominated one tax cheat after another to his Cabinet. But, it was underlings who thought of stunts like buzzing New York City with Air Force One for a photo op, giving the Prime Minister a collection of DVD’s which won’t play on British players, and giving the Queen of England an Ipod filled with his speeches, and making sure the doctors he addressed all wore lab coats for the cameras. The Teleprompter of the United States doesn’t make decisions like that. Courtiers competing for his attention and favor do. Most likely, Obama didn’t personally vet Communist Van Jones or Anita Dunn for their czar jobs. No, he probably delegated that to the same people who can and do mislead him as much as he misleads himself about the real reasons for his falling popularity.

Oct 22, 2009 - 7:05 am 54. biblio44:

50. Bilgeman: “We can only hope to see the back of this fraud in a peaceful and lawful manner.”

As I was saying, the Secret Service has enough to deal with without having to spend time monitoring PJM.

Oct 22, 2009 - 7:05 am 55. Sebastian Shaw:

President Obama’s administration’s fecklessness largely is derived from their non-leader’s own isolation from reality; as he continues to live in his own demented Saul Alinsky theme park & trying his best to remake America into his own Communist image, high unemployment is steady as the recession has not been properly dealt with. In fact, thanks to Porkulus, Obama has made it worse. The problem is Obama is running the country as a COMMUNITY ORGANIZER instead of a Commander-in-Chief; he delegates everything, leaving himself only with the spotlight. That spotlight can turn into a laser beam & burn President Obama as his failures mount.

Oct 22, 2009 - 7:20 am 56. ETAB:

Obama didn’t run a brilliant but a mediocre campaign. He won because the electorate wanted someone who was ‘Not Bush’. And Obama’s handlers played that theme to the hilt with the aid of an adoring leftist MSM.

They defined him as ‘black’, from a mixed marriage (how open to diversity is that!);as part of the new age academic rather than business Set (ahh, all about social justice and the third world and community activism rather than money); as anti-war, but not anti-protect the USA, and thus, pro-Afghanistan, and so on.

The fact that this new age perspective and lifestyle is totally fictional and exists only in rhetoric rather than practice has been ignored by the left.

McCain was part of the old images of the US: war, money, service. He didn’t have a chance.

Obama hasn’t changed. He still does no work and delegates everything. He continues to campaign, using the same tactics as in the election:
1) misinform ..with false data;
2) manipulate..using emotions of fear and hope. Everything is always in a crisis.
3) accusations of bias if you disagree with him.

That’s his basic strategy. Does it work?

He’s using the same tactics now and he’s not getting anywhere. So, he’s increasing the pressure on all three.

1) In foreign affairs, he has been astonishingly unsuccessful. His insults to the leaders of the West, his kowtowing to the dictators of the Middle East and Russia, his indifference to the democratic desires of the Iranian people, his support for the anti-constitutional agenda of the Honduran Zelaya..what has he achieved?

Russia is flexing its muscle, as is Iran, as is N.Korea, as is Venezuala. ALL have realized that with Obama, the rhetoric is his ‘real world’. The actual world? Obama is indifferent to it. So, they are ‘talking his talk’ while doing what they want..in actual reality. This includes Iran’s nuclear bomb,Russia’s expansion, Venezuala’s expansion and the network between these areas which will set up a dangerous anti-west power.

As Sarkozy, furious with Obama’s insistence on living only in this fictional world said of Obama – that he lives in a virtual not a real world.

2) Internally, Obama has moved the country into massive debt and is crippling its ability to economic strength.

He’s taken over key industries and financial institutes, and is intent on running them as govt extensions. This includes pay scales – which will result in a bureaucratic rather than managerial executive of these systems, for the free executives won’t work for that low pay and in such govt restrictions.

His health care is a disastrous agenda, removing people from free decisions and into the conrol of the govt…

And so on. So what has he accomplished? The problem that Obama has is that he lives in a fictional world, and facts are starting to implode that fictional realm. He’s fighting back – trying to stem the emergence of facts (eg, from FOX News, from the CBO, the Board of Commerce)..trying to stop dissent and criticism (his pretending the Tea Parties didn’t exist, his rejection of Town Halls as valid etc).

What will he do next, to keep his fictional realm free of facts, and prevent the people from access to the real world?

Oct 22, 2009 - 7:22 am 57. Old Soldier:

Like Bill Clinton, they seem to love the campaign but despise the actual jobs they are campaigning for.

Oct 22, 2009 - 7:24 am 58. Drew:

After the first few disastrous press conferences by Gibbs, I predicted that he’d be gone before the end of March. I thought his inept handling of the press made this a pretty sure bet.

And yet here we are, and Gibbs is still there, and he’s still completely inept.

But it’s not just Gibbs and Dunn — the Van Jones debacle was similarly strange in that the White House apparently felt the American people would have no issue with a self-described Communist in a position of power — one who made it very plain that he was only interested in “Green Jobs” because he saw it as pushing us closer toward Marxism.

These folks are the tip of the iceberg.

It suggests that the folks in this administration have lived so long in a far-left echo chamber that it does not occur to them that the American people, by and large, do not approve of Marxism, and are not encouraged by the routine stumbles. That they are not impressed by a meaningless Nobel Prize — now revealed to be an international version of public schools giving out kids As to help their self-esteem.

At the start it seemed unnecessary to keep a list of this administration’s stumbles. There wouldn’t be that many, would there? But now I wish I had, because I lost count once we hit several dozen.

Oct 22, 2009 - 7:26 am 59. BMoon:

It is not so much stupidity but the mental stupor and arrogance created by the illusions of power. As virulent statists, they seem to have forgotten that they live in what is still a democracy with a pervasive tradition of Judeo-Christian morality and thought, and although they may have managed to lobotomize a large portion of the population through their incessant barrage of Leftist propaganda in the media and in the schools, too many of us are not willing to submit passively and brainlessly to their mindless dogma and lame attempt to silence free speech and free institutions.

Oct 22, 2009 - 7:41 am 60. paul_unalaska:

‘..they haven’t made a complete botch of a hurricane emergency..’.

BC, you should vent your ‘wambulance’ remarks elsewhere.

Now I’ll give you credit for Bush’ dealings with/ in Iraq. Though the intelligence community is the very same Manchurian-in-Chief possesses.

As for your other snide remarks (When are you going to move on? I feel sorry for the boyfriend or girlfriend who tells you it’s over.) you need to look into Mayor Nagin, Barney Frank respectively.

You know, the guy who was RESPONSIBLE for the laxidaisical logistics, performance and reaction to Hurricane Katrina making landfall. Oh, you can read about the city’s ‘actions’ in 2004 hurricane season as well..
http://www.unitygno.org/newsUploads/47_1.doc

Nagin, leaving a voicemail at the White House of ‘..25,000 people dead’ on and on. Moronic. A man who’s supposed to stand tall and represent the city in a lucid manner in a time of crisis, instead reacted like an inexperienced buffoon. Blame is easier than manning up, right?

Never fear, like D.C. when they’d reelected crackhead and later stalker Marion Barry who’d represented a heavily Democratic voter contingent, New Orleans reelected Nagin. ‘Good move’.

Yeah, the National Guard should’ve waded in and set up shop on pontoon boats, right? No dangers in that scenario..?

BC, it’s nearly 3 years since the Senate has been controlled by Democrats. Didn’t you get the memo?

Then again, you rely on the wisdom of Barney ‘the private sector got us into this mess and the Government has to get us out’ Frank mindset. Wow, that’s a serious accusation. Considering it’s a lie.

Take a look at AEI Scholar and appointed to the Congressional Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Peter Wallison’s article. Fiction’s fun but non-fiction is better.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704107204574475110152189446.html

The blame Bush mindset is no different than an unemployed trailer park Queen collecting child support and portions of her ex hubby’s paycheck and STILL blaming him for her plight.

Oct 22, 2009 - 7:51 am 61. ricpic:

What’s dumb about setting out to destroy America and then doing it? That’s the Obammunist agenda.

Oct 22, 2009 - 7:52 am 62. Jeff Weimer:

52. biblio44:

That’s nice, and the Lede certainly is incendiary, but the reporter fails to substantiate the title – there are no reported numbers for the increase, leaving it up to the reader to infer from the rest of the article. It mentions a few anecdotes about emails and radio callers who are obvious nuts and a facebook poll – done, as we subsequently found, by a kid, and we will never know the motivation, as he (or she) is a minor and their identity is (properly) hidden. Now, all of this is regrettable and stupid, and the vast majority of us here condemn it, but it fares relatively well against the (at least) three Facebook groups wanting to kill GWB, a MOVIE called “Assassination of a President” (about a hypothetical GWB assasination) that was released in the US, and Nobel Peace Prize awardees calling for his death ( http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/DN-peace_12nat.ART.State.Edition1.43b8067.html ). And if you worry over the Obama=Hitler signs that have shown recently, remember, those are Lyndon Larouche followers attacking Obama from the left. Of course, you could take a gander here: http://www.zombietime.com and see the level of “passion” a few San Franciscans held against GWB.

There is also in the article ominous “studies” by the SPLC, who is hardly non-ideological in this – their existence (and funding) depends on the continued existence and expansion of those types of groups. If you look at their studies, they cast a very wide net to get these numbers. Not that these extreme groups don’t exist, they do, and on both sides of the ideological spectrum. But the SPLC exists to serve a narrative – which you appear to subscribe to – that everyone on the right belongs to this. That is simply not true, and it does a disservice to the conversations we have here.

Oct 22, 2009 - 7:55 am 63. ETAB:

Reality intrudes on fiction. As quite a few of us have said, Obama lives in a virtual world. His agenda has always been to maintain control of this world and prevent reality’s intrusion.

Whether he does this, as I and others have suggested, because he is psychologically motivated as a pathological narcissist – or – as his backroom gang are, because they are socialist ideologues, is not the point. All that matters is that Obama and his team are ‘virtualists’ who live only in fiction not fact.

The endless campaigning is meant to persuade you that fiction is a choice and a preferable one, to reality. However, the repressive tactics of smearing dissent and criticism, is meant to suggest that you have no choice.
Is it working?

Obama’s Rasmussen presidential rating is now at minus 13, the first time it’s been in this double digit range for 7 straight days. It moved into the negative and has remained there, since the beginning of July.

Further, the increase in independents who strongly disapprove – not just disapprove but strongly – is at 42%.

Party filiation? Again, Rasmussen points to a reduction to core components. The Republicans are now at 32.1%, while Democrats are at 37.5%. This seems to be their core.

The Republicans were at a high in the 2004 election of 37.1 vs 38.6..with the independent at 24.3. Notice that Bush won this election.

The 2008 election had 33.8 and 41.4 and 24.7 (GOP, Dems, Ind). Obama won.

But now, the Democrats have fallen; the same format is 32.1, 37.5, 30.4.

The GOP has moved to its stable base; the Democrat flush is over and it’s falling, and the Independents are picking up from that fall.

Living in a virtual world requires a LOT of repression of the people to prevent them from knowing about and acting on facts. Hence, I suggest Obama’s agenda of silencing dissent is going to increase, as his propaganda will also increase.

Oct 22, 2009 - 7:56 am 64. Snorri Godhi:

Of course Chairman Mao and Mother Teresa were philosophers: we all are philosophers. (In my modesty, I rate myself higher than Mao as a philosopher.) But not all of us will be, or ought to be, remembered for our philosophies.

More seriously: Mao was a lesser philosopher than Lenin, who was a lesser philosopher than Marx; and Marx looks pretty silly compared to Plato, Aristotle, Hume, and Kant, to name just a few. In Charles Murray’s Human Accomplishment, Marx does not figure amongst the 20 most important Western philosophers. (Not that I myself think highly of all the top 20.)

Judging from her quotation, what Ms Dunn learned from Mao is political strategy. I’d think that Machiavelli and Sun Tzu would be more profitable in this respect.

Oct 22, 2009 - 8:03 am 65. Random Dude:

No, they’re not as dumb as they seem.

They are using media bias and spectres of the Fairness Doctrine to distract the big microphones in talk radio and television from the healthcare debate and Afghanistan.

They would not have involved Obama, Dunn, Axelrod, Emmanuel without coordinating substantially.

The fact they invited Olbermann, Maddow to the WH at the same moment as reporting bias is an obvious softball thrown to the media to distract it.

Oct 22, 2009 - 8:03 am 66. blotto:

biblio44: Duh! You can’t do it can you? You are intellectually incapable of engaging in adult and cogent debate.

n&t: You are disgusting slime and I hope with each post I make and shine the light on you, more and more posters will not engage with you. Your remark about Beck’s child was vile but unremarkable for a troll like you.

Oct 22, 2009 - 8:06 am 67. Michael:

Wow, the libs don’t even try to debate the article. I bow to you Roger, you have stumped the libs.

Of course sometimes stupid is just too stupid to defend.

Oct 22, 2009 - 8:09 am 68. elaine:

biblio:

I think the president — with his incessant penchant for photo-op burger runs with the VP or trips with the girls to the local frozen yogurt shop — is doing far more to put our nation’s secret service agents at risk than any alleged right-wing extremist groups are. Every time the president or first lady go out in public, dozens of secret service agents put their lives on the line to keep them safe. It’s fine if they’re going out in public in service to the nation, but when they do it so they can have date night on the town, they’re doing it needlessly and with a grave lack of concern for the safety of those who are protecting them. But hey… when you’re a raging narcissist, why should you give a f*#% about anyone else?

Further, we’ve already seen via the recent Rush incident that the left isn’t above making up racist remarks when none are at hand. Who’s to say these un-named government officials in the article you cited aren’t simply claiming that they’re having to investigate a growing number of death threats against the president? And who’s to say those threats are all coming from the right?

But, hey… it wouldn’t be the first time a leftie has claimed that it’s racism straight-up that’s fuelling all of Obama’s opposition. I’m sure it won’t be the last, either…

You quoted Bilgeman saying: “We can only hope to see the back of this fraud in a peaceful and lawful manner.” and seemed to suggest his remark was yet another death threat against the president. Surely you aren’t seriously suggesting that, are you? Because my read is that he’d much prefer seeing Obama’s back in a peaceful and lawful manner. What’s threatening about that?

Glenn Beck repeatedly tells his viewers and listeners that any taking back of this government by the people needs to be done PEACEFULLY. That hardly merits any concern by the Secret Service that he’s fomenting a violent overthrow of our nation’s elected governmnet.

If anything, it’s the rabid lefties who pose a serious threat to Obama’s safety. If you doubt that, maybe you should spend some time among them on Daily Kos and HuffPo. They’re starting to get really PO’d that Obama’s not doing enough, fast enough… and they have the experience of violent protests and actions to prove they’re an actual threat, as opposed to the Tea Partiers, who didn’t even leave any trash on the Mall after their 912 rally in DC.

Oct 22, 2009 - 8:13 am 69. Samizdat:

Roger,

I view Anita Dunn as more calculating than stupid, even if her remarks backfire on the administration as they surely have.

If you want to define dumb you need to look no further than the Vice President. Joe Biden is the Colonel Klink of Obama’s team. He never gets it right. He was near the bottom of his class at Syracuse Law School and got nailed for plagarism while a student there. He then repeated the plagarism error in his 1988 Presidential campaign. He has never gotten his war votes right. He was in favor of partioning Iraq, an idea rejected by the overwhelming majority of Iraqis. He is now in favor of a Rumsfeld strategy in Afghanistan. For a supposed foriegn affairs ace his track record is pathetic.

The liberals are always casting those they disagree with as stupid. I reserve that designation for the truely ignorant and Mr Biden fits in with that bunch. He really is Colonel Klink.

Oct 22, 2009 - 8:21 am 70. David S:

I’m not nearly as concerned about the intelligence of the Obama administration, as I am about the lack of intellectual honesty on the right.

The constant tone of shrill and incoherent opposition, based primarily on distortions and lies, does not reflect well on the party. Obama may be down near 50% approval. But outside the deep south, the GOP is well under 20%.

It really makes no sense to claim that Obama is both incompetent and an evil mastermind who will transform the country in mere months. Obviously he is neither. He is a disciplined and patient politician, and he understands the nature and pace of Congress.

But go ahead and convince yourself that we’re all a bunch of idiots – after all, we voted for Obama-Biden over McCain-Palin. Certainly that’s evidence of something…

Peace.

DS

Oct 22, 2009 - 8:27 am 71. Thomas_L......:

Booblio, by his moniker, expects us to see and treat him as a walking library. In reality, he’s the type of doofus who comes here, doesn’t even read the article and proceeds to pee on our legs. Rather than offering a differing, intelligent opinion, like the other trolls, he merely pulls down his pants in public. Booblio.

Oct 22, 2009 - 8:29 am 72. Real Deal:

The media, hell, mostly everyone myself included, liked the idea of a young, smart, successful black president.

Actually I could give a rats behind about the color of the President’s skin. Also anyone with half a brain took a look at Obama and said “this isn’t the one”, it was there if you just took a second and really looked. Obama’s performance, polices, and cronyism are no surprise to anyone who bothered to pay attention.

Oct 22, 2009 - 8:33 am 73. Gracie:

No, they are not dumb.
It is a plan to dismantle the US as we know it. The plan has been in action many years, it didn’t just start with Obama. If we fall apart, they can march in and take over , “save us from ourselves”,no questions. “new world order”
.
People like Carville attack the messenger, not the message, i.e, Beck… The more his party goes off track and “appears” to be losing , the louder his tirade gets. I had forgotten about Carville til venividivici mentioned. I do not under any circumstances watch the Sunday trash shows.

Don’t ever give in or give up on our country. We are better than the Obama’s of this world.

Oct 22, 2009 - 8:37 am 74. clear mind:

Housecleaning and health care reform go together.

First, you change health care and reform the mental health confinement guidelines; then you release all of the incarcerated patients and give them a job at the White House. It will demonstrate how health care reform can work. Put all the crazies in one place so we can watch them on reality TV – aka the mass media.

Aren’t you pleased that Barry-of-Chicago had this great idea and the voting public bought it hook-line-and-sinker?

Now, there’s room for the rest of us in the mental institutions.

Oct 22, 2009 - 8:38 am 75. Michael:

David S. I am glad you repudiate all “The constant tone of shrill and incoherent opposition, based primarily on distortions and lies, does not reflect well on the party” of the democrats during the Bush presidency.

“But go ahead and convince yourself that we’re all a bunch of idiots – after all, we voted for Obama-Biden over McCain-Palin. Certainly that’s evidence of something…”

But we still have hope for you.

Oct 22, 2009 - 8:41 am 76. Jeff Weimer:

70. David S:

…He is a disciplined and patient politician, and he understands the nature and pace of Congress….

And that’s why he pushed to have the health care bill voted on before the August break?

I’m sorry, but his actions in the last few months decidedly do NOT evince anything remotely resembling that statement. It shows more of a misunderstanding of that and his perception of a mandate – both he has overestimated to his chagrin.

Oct 22, 2009 - 8:45 am 77. Fred Beloit:

#49
“I know, you’d rather have a Fox News Opinion Dynamic Poll . . . allow me . . .
“Do you hate Obama?” . . . 99% said “yes.” It was the highest reading ever on Frank Lunt’z Donkey Kong Meter.”

Dhooooo, Now and Then, from Newsmax: “A national survey conducted for the League of American Voters by the Global Marketing Research Center during last week shows that 46 percent of those who watch Fox News “just about every day” are Democrats or independents as are 50 percent of those who watch it “several times each week” or more.”

Get out your calculator for some simple arithmetic, NAT. You won’t like the results concerning who hates Obie.

Oct 22, 2009 - 8:52 am 78. blotto:

“The constant tone of shrill and incoherent opposition, based primarily on distortions and lies…” Ah, DS, you just lied.

You, DS, would not know “intellectual honesty” if it bit you one the rear. For instance, name one honest thing Obama has done since being selected at POTUS?

Let me help: putting bills up for viewing for five days, nope; closing Gitmo, nope; improving the economy, nope; not hiring lobbyists, nope; being post-racial, nope; unifying us, nope; pulling us out of Iraq and Afghanistan, nope; awww geez, DS, I can’t help you.

But did O have the sealed divorce records of his GOP challenger in Chicago opened before his election? Did O make any of his college transcripts available for viewing? Did he make a degrading comment about voters in western PA who believe in God and have guns? Did he say that his cap and tax would “necissarily” put coal buring plants out of business?

Geez, DS, and I’ve asked you before but perhaps you should provide more facts to bolster your attempts at debate before spewing your own intellectual dishonesty on this thread.

And God knows why I respond to you. I really try not to but well I’m bored.

Oct 22, 2009 - 8:54 am 79. Professor Guvinoff:

Obama LLC is a bad vaccine. It contains the marxist virus so our immune system learns not to vote like this ever again. But the virus is not particularly attenuated, as it would have been in a well prepared vaccine, and we get really sick instead of merely unconvenienced for a short period.

Being knocked down by one virus gets the gates of opportunity wide open for other latent forms of virulence. Right now the combined threat of islamofascists of all stripes, the Russies, inflation and even deflation has been raised to unprecedented levels. We’ll be darn lucky if we still have voting booths in 2012. Even the Honduras were hurt by proxy!

Oct 22, 2009 - 9:09 am 80. Now and Then:

76. Fred Beloit:
Did I mention anything about who made up the 99% who typically respond to a Fox News poll? Nope. Try again.

Oct 22, 2009 - 9:10 am 81. jb:

You just can’t fix stupid.

Oct 22, 2009 - 9:12 am 82. XiaoMei:

4. zhombre:

I can’t conceive of the mind that would pair Mao Zedong and Mother Teresa and hold them up as exemplars of political philosophy.

It is a dull and empty mind trying to sound sharp, surprising, witty, and wise.

Oct 22, 2009 - 9:15 am 83. biblio44:

62. Jeff Weimer: “52. biblio44: That’s nice, and the Lede certainly is incendiary, but the reporter fails to substantiate the title – there are no reported numbers for the increase….”

Yeah, no increase; what does the Secret Service know anyhow? (By “reported,” I take it you mean, reported by Fox News.)

66. blotto: “biblio44: Duh! You can’t do it can you? You are intellectually incapable of engaging in adult and cogent debate. n&t: You are disgusting slime….”

Well, blotto, we seem to differ on the definition of “cogent debate.”

71. Thomas_L……:”…he merely pulls down his pants in public….”

Dream on, Tommy, but I’m keeping my pants up. Thanks anyway, on behalf of the other trolls, for complimenting their “intelligent opinion.” Always nice to be validated by an a-hole (speaking of pants down).

You guys are more entertaining than The Onion!

Oct 22, 2009 - 9:25 am 84. biblio44:

68. elaine: “biblio: Every time the president or first lady go out in public, dozens of secret service agents put their lives on the line to keep them safe. It’s fine if they’re going out in public in service to the nation, but when they do it so they can have date night on the town, they’re doing it needlessly and with a grave lack of concern for the safety of those who are protecting them. But hey… when you’re a raging narcissist, why should you give a f*#% about anyone else?”

Yeah, you can always tell a raging narcissist by the fact that he’ll leave his home for a night on the town. Lady, your statement is beyond silly.

“Glenn Beck repeatedly tells his viewers and listeners that any taking back of this government by the people needs to be done PEACEFULLY.”

Yeah, he needs to tell them “repeatedly” – especially when they insist on bringing their guns to town meetings.

Oct 22, 2009 - 9:33 am 85. Thomas_L.....:

Booblio – Don’t waste your precious time. Here it is. Because I’m smarter than you using only my peripheral vision and a fraction of my attention, I noticed you addressed me. By all means, continue to read every word I write, however, most of us see Booblio, Mono, Vapid S etc., we just move right on as quickly as possible. We don’t want to get any on us. You’ve got to be insane to continue to do what you do unless someone is paying you by the word. And is Tommy, really the best you can do, Booblio?

Oct 22, 2009 - 9:33 am 86. biblio44:

82. Thomas_L…..: “And is Tommy, really the best you can do, Booblio?”

That’s the best I need to do. Your moronic posts speak for themselves, Tommy. Have a nice day.

Oct 22, 2009 - 9:41 am 87. Gringo:

70. David S:

I’m not nearly as concerned about the intelligence of the Obama administration, as I am about the lack of intellectual honesty on the right.
The constant tone of shrill and incoherent opposition, based primarily on distortions and lies, does not reflect well on the party. Obama may be down near 50% approval. But outside the deep south, the GOP is well under 20%.

Those who are intellectually honest document assertions; You have not documented your assertions.

The Rasmussen Report on the Generic Congressional Ballot does not support your assertion.

The GOP advantage over Democrats increased from two points to five in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 42% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 37% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent.
Support for Democrats dropped two points this week, while support for the GOP slightly increased.
Voters not affiliated with either party heavily favor the GOP, 40% to 23%.

Back on November 2nd last year, the GOP trailed the Democrats 41% to 47%. In nearly a year, Republicans have gone from -6 to + 5 in the Generic Congressional Ballot.
The Republican/Democrat difference in party affiliation has changed from 9.9% in favor of the Democrats for the quarter ending June 2008 to 4.5% for the quarter ending in September 2009.

Those are the numbers.

Oct 22, 2009 - 9:46 am 88. elaine:

On reply to DS:

“I’m not nearly as concerned about the intelligence of the Obama administration, as I am about the lack of intellectual honesty on the right.”

Really? I thought you guys voted for Obama because he was the “smart” candidate. Now it’s not that important to you whether he’s intelligent? Now it’s more important how intellectually dishonest the right is being? Your concern moves me deeply…

I don’t know about you, but I am VERY troubled that a man who campaigned on being the smart choice isn’t nearly as wise as he led us all to believe. Because his lack of wisdom is going to get a lot of people killed, whether it’s the secret service agents who guard him, our troops overseas, or people here in this country.

“The constant tone of shrill and incoherent opposition, based primarily on distortions and lies, does not reflect well on the party. Obama may be down near 50% approval. But outside the deep south, the GOP is well under 20%.”

I’m so glad your chief concern is how all this will affect the Republican brand. I’m sure every other republican in the nation is just as appreciative of your deep concern for how republicans are perceived by the right-thinking elites of this great land of ours…

But before you get yourself too worked up over our self-imolation, maybe you should stop making up stuff to support your claims.

BTW… when the left ragged on Bush for eight years, they weren’t being shrill in their opposition, but the right is? And what distortions and lies is the right guilty of? How about some examples?

“It really makes no sense to claim that Obama is both incompetent and an evil mastermind who will transform the country in mere months. Obviously he is neither.”

Hey, the left spent the last eight years saying Bush was stupid AND evil…

And, whether you credit it or not, Obama has started down the path of transforming this nation, just as he promised he would five days before the election. Of course, back then, he didn’t define HOW he was planning on transforming America, and I seriously doubt he would’ve had nearly as many people support him as he did if he had been candid about the type of transformation he was planning…

He’s already taken over two of the three major auto manufacturers in this country, after giving them tens of billions of taxpayer dollars. Did the same thing with many financial institutions. Is trying to take over healthcare by driving the insurance companies out of business, leaving the government as the only option. Is trying to not only kill the coal industry but make America a hostage to foreign oil, rather than make us energy independent. (Make no mistake, cap and trade will do nothing about solving our short-term requirement for oil, which will leave us beholden to Russia and the Middle East.)

Not to mention what all his plans will do to the American taxpayer. (Hint: can you say “redistribution of wealth?”)

And let’s not forget that we still have an economy which is tanking, a dollar that’s nose-diving against other currencies, and unemployment which is continuing to rise. (Jobless recovery my a$$ — it’s a jobless recovery when we stop LOSING jobs. Until then, it’s still a recession, or worse.)

All this is evidence of his “evil” side, if you want to call it that. I prefer to think of it more as the inevitable result of a lifetime spent being indoctrinated in marxist philosophy…

Further, we have a man who campaigned on the need to be fighting the war in Afghanistan, yet when his general asks for more troops (back in AUGUST, I hasten to add), Obama spends months trying to decide whether to commit them or not. In the meantime, our soldiers are dying and our enemies are emboldened to take even greater action against us.

Obama’s turning a blind eye to Russia expanding their sphere of influence (the latest is them lending money to Serbia in exchange for building a pipeline to serve the Balkans and Europe. Allowing Serbia to cuddle up with the Russian bear is probably not a good idea for anyone, including the Serbs.), he’s trying to negotiate with Iran (only to learn that the power of his personal magnetism is oddly ineffective agaisnt crazy totalitarian dictators), he’s routinely hanging our allies out to dry (renegging on Poland and the Czech Republic and the European missile defense system we promised them), not to mention standing athwart people desperately asserting their right to freedom from tyrannical governments (Iran and Honduras).

This would be examples of his “stupid” side. Though I’d lean more toward “incompetent,” or possibly it’s evidence that he’s just one more lying politician who’ll say whatever’s politically expedient to get elected. And now that it gains him nothing politically, he isn’t inclined to actually do anything positive. Maybe the proper word, then, is “callous” rather than “stupid.”

“He is a disciplined and patient politician, and he understands the nature and pace of Congress.”

So that would be why he’s insisted that TARP, cap-and-trade, healthcare, etc. had to be passed right now, because it’s an emergency! Clearly, he knows all about the nature and pace of Congress…

How about, instead, he wanted legislation passed before anyone actually reads the bills (including the congressmen charged with voting for the bills in question)? That’s why everything had to be done now.

Dave, the first step in healing your addiction is to admit you have a problem…

Oct 22, 2009 - 9:59 am 89. progressoverpeace:

Team Obama certainly ran a brilliant election campaign,

No, they didn’t. Their campaign was as gaffe-filled and bad as they are now. The difference was that they were just campaigning and it was much easier for the neo-Pravda media to cover up for their daily mistakes and idiocies. When the bunch of morons, led by the dumbest person to ever occupy the White House, took over governance, there wasn’t nearly as much room to hide, or room for the neo-Pravda media to hide them.

The Precedent’s campaign was just as bad as they are now, but the circumstances were different and allowed the look of professionalism to be painted on them by their lapdogs and cheerleaders at ABC, NBC, CBS, NYSlimes, WaPo, …

Anyone who actually listened to The Precedent back from his days as just an idiot messiah knew that he was a brain-dead moron who had no clue what he was doing. It was thanks to McCain and his band of idiots, along with Condi Rice and some other fools, that America kept being reassured that the idiot messiah would make a fine Chief Executive. It was infuriating to watch this. At least people are seeing the light about how impenetrably stupid the White House gang is. It’s a real shame that it’s too late. The damage is being done and much of it will be irreversible, if not fatal to our nation.

In the end, it’s either The Precedent or the US. People have to choose, because both will not emerge from The Precedent’s tenure, intact.

Oct 22, 2009 - 10:01 am 90. Jeff Weimer:

80. biblio44:

No, you take it wrong, and seem to have stopped reading my resonse right there. I mean there are no numbers reported in the boston.com article you referenced. There is nothing in there other than that statement and anecdotal evidence that tries to support it. It would be nice to see those actual numbers – I have no doubt they are different, maybe even larger. But your source does not substantiate that point, making it suspect.

Oct 22, 2009 - 10:04 am 91. misanthropicus:

RE #36/ biblio44 RE #18. AL etc.

Biblio, great to have someone so enlightened and insightful around – and now, since we discuss some roots of the political philosophy the current team in the White House share, including comrade Obama himself, can you guide me through the following matter:

I’ve been for long trying to:
1) access and read Obama’s Columbia U graduation thesis “US-Soviet Nuclear Disarmament Issues In The 1980-s,” thesis mentioned by him in his superb “Dreams From My Father”, with no avail -
2) then, I tried to access and read Obama’s Columbia U graduation thesis “North-South Relationships In The Post-Colonial Age”, thesis mentioned by him in his moving “The Audacity Of Hope”, yet here I was equally unsuccessful -

Then, my wonderment at the unavailability of these two (2) graduation works which would give an inkling in mister Obama’s political philosophy grew, when I learnt from a Columbia U official’s statement that the track in which mister Obama was apparently enrolled in, didn’t even HAVE A THESIS AS A GRADUATION REQUIREMENT AT THAT TIME!

Biblio, can me guide where I can find and study study mister Obama’s Columbia U career-crowning efforts?

Best regards -
Political Philosophy Student In SoCal -

Oct 22, 2009 - 10:08 am 92. blotto:

biblio44: I guess my version is that one side uses facts and use commonly referred to debate tactics and then the other side refutes them with facts of their own.

But you can’t do that despite many of us trying to encourage you to debate.

But since you do not have the necessary skills or creative thought processes, you resort to immature sniping. Even DS makes some attempt at debate but even he has to wait until CAP or MM sends him his talking points and quotes. But he tries.

Oct 22, 2009 - 10:09 am 93. Samizdat:

Thomas_L at #82,
Thank you for echoing my sentiments. As soon as I see the troll author mame I continue to scroll.

It is not worth the time to attempt to reason with Marxists they are beyond rational discorse. They are ideologically tied to a failed economic and political system that is the world leader at producing human misery and death. If they can’t comprehend their own blindness, it ain’t worth the time to even acknowledge their pathetic prose. Let them worship Mao, Lenin, Pol pot, Hitler (remember Naziism is an offshoot of Marxism) and the other adolescent zealots as they see fit. We don’t need to bother engaging such twisted thought.

I wish more participants had your understanding of the situation.

Oct 22, 2009 - 10:14 am 94. Exactly!:

Obama has an average intelligence. His college grades were lousy. Azelrod is brilliant. Do not confuse the marketer with the product. The American public will not buy much longer. Hurry, Nemesis, hurry.

Oct 22, 2009 - 10:14 am 95. elaine:

“Yeah, you can always tell a raging narcissist by the fact that he’ll leave his home for a night on the town. Lady, your statement is beyond silly.”

Thanks for being dismissive and misogynistic, all in two sentences.

“Date night” was but one example. He routinely goes out on the town — to basketball games; as I mentioned previously, on burger runs with his VP; to restaurants (plural, in Paris, NYC, and DC as but a few examples) with the wife; to yogurt shops with the girls. And when he goes out on these excursions, he does it to be seen, dragging the bulk of the press corps along for the photo op. And, let’s be clear here, they’re more than happy to post the pictures on their websites, in their papers, and on their newscasts.

I’d like to know why the man can’t spend time in the White House, the most exclusive address in this country. They have a full kitchen staff with chefs and everything — you’d think that would be better than any restaurant in town.

It’s all about being seen, biblio. It’s all about having people talk about him.

Why do you think he’s constantly giving speeches instead of — oh, I don’t know… maybe actually meeting with his generals and figuring out a course of action in Afghanistan? Because the latter is work, something Obama’s proven he’s averse to; but the former is easy, especially if all he has to do is read from a teleprompter.

It’s high time he realized he’s president of the United States, not just president of the people who voted for him. And it’s high time he actually did some work for all of us, rather than give handouts to his political cronies.

As for your guns crack… that’s been isolated incidents in states which allow open carry. No one was threatened by someone brandishing a gun. So you can just drop the feigned outrage and the Pelosi-esque crocodile tears, ‘kay?

Let’s not forget that the violence at various townhall meetings was pretty much all instigated by the left, not the right. And it all seemed to stop as soon as people showed up with guns. Wonder why that would be? Maybe conventional wisdom is right, that an armed society is a polite society…

Oct 22, 2009 - 10:17 am 96. RonCat63:

For the first time in my life I feel like that I have a much better idea of how the world works that the sitting President does.

Oct 22, 2009 - 10:22 am 97. Bilgeman:

#68 elaine:
“You quoted Bilgeman saying: “We can only hope to see the back of this fraud in a peaceful and lawful manner.” and seemed to suggest his remark was yet another death threat against the president. Surely you aren’t seriously suggesting that, are you? Because my read is that he’d much prefer seeing Obama’s back in a peaceful and lawful manner. What’s threatening about that?”

Thanks for the support, but you surely realize that facts have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the Left’s self-programmed political paranoia.

We’ve seen this before, back in the 1990’s, when Bill Clinton’s “Voices of Hate”,(meaning opposition to the policies of Bill Clinton), morphed into a Federal prosecutorial witch-hunt against citizens with the temerity to exercise their freedom to peacably assemble and their right to keep and bear arms at the same time.

Too bad that in their zealous pursuit of the dreaded “Back 40 Militia” and their “assault weapon stockpile” of a few rusty SKS rifles, Federal law enforcement remained uninterested in a few Arab and Muslim fellows who were taking jumbo-jet flight,(but not landing), training at simulator facilities.

This paranoia reasserted itself after the Michigan Militia’s attack on the World Trade Center when people reasonably suggested allowing passenger jet pilots to have firearms in their cockpits.

Oct 22, 2009 - 10:25 am 98. uberVU - social comments:

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Yahoobuzz by Don: Finally… the truth. enough said …

Oct 22, 2009 - 10:31 am 99. Charlie (Colorado):

Only a true moral nitwit would say anything approving of Mao now.

Well, I kinda hoped “old fat bastard” made it clear I wasn’t.

Oct 22, 2009 - 10:34 am 100. sallie:

The trolls give us rhetoric. When you ask them for relevant facts you get cut and paste posts from the likes of Huffington. They prove to be out of context, irrelevant, outdated.

We will not see the birth certificate, the school transcripts, school buds, girls he dated, a high school yearbook,where Obama actually grew up, a thesis or anything else.

Hell even Bush’s kids got raked in the mud of the left. Gore’s son was well protected though.

Look what Obama did to Ryan, Hall, Hendon, then have the audacity to call him a good, man. puke

Voters and the media have to take the full brunt of blame for this man being in office.

Obama’s team is doing his Chicago mud slinging with FOX and it is, for once, backfiring.
His meeting with the media yesterday was unprecedented and a low blow to democracy.

Oct 22, 2009 - 10:42 am 101. Banned by Huffpo:

There IS a bright side.

The democrat congress continues to play on the beach, kicking sand and making a lot of noise, oblivious to the tsunami of opposition that is getting ready to wash them out of office.

Keep it up, Harry and Nancy. Won’t be long now.

Oct 22, 2009 - 10:43 am 102. misanthropicus:

“Are The Obanoids As Dumb As They Seem?”

Idiocy, incompetence or sheer sedition?
I’m still pondering – yet the bellow excerpt from today’s Foreign Affairs can make anyone to start brooding -

“Obama’s Military Problem Is Getting Worse”
Wed, 10/21/2009/By Peter Feaver -

President Obama is presiding over a slow-motion civil-military crash occasioned by his meandering Afghanistan strategy review. The crash has not yet happened and is avoidable, but it also foreseeable. Of concern, the latest reports out of the White House suggest that Obama’s team is not yet fully aware of the dangers. If it happens, it will be a problem entirely of Obama’s own making and it could have a lasting impact on the way his administration unfolds.

As Rich Lowry has observed, President Obama rarely misses a chance to blame a challenge he is confronting on his predecessor. This rhetorical tic served Obama well during the campaign and probably still resonates with partisans who post anonymous comments on blogs or who suffer from chronic Bush Derangement Syndrome. But it gives the impression that the Administration never left the campaign bubble and may even encourage self-defeating campaign-like behavior such as picking feuds with news organizations.

And insofar as the Afghan strategy review goes, it is a narrative string that is thoroughly played out because the current civil-military problem confronting the Obama Administration is entirely of its own making. The problem is not that Afghanistan is a difficult combat theater, nor that Karzai is an inconvenient Afghan ally, nor even that President Obama is taking time to review his strategic options. All of that and more is true and, I suppose, some of it can be “blamed” on President Bush. The problem that cannot be blamed on Bush is that the way President Obama is reviewing his strategic options is generating needless civil-military friction and, unless the Obama team gets it under control, could generate a genuine civil-military crisis.

Tom Donnelly produced an extensive tick-tock of the evolving Obama Afghanistan policy that reads like the first draft of a “what went wrong” post-mortem. For my money, the key developments were:

President Obama opts for a misleading straddle in rolling-out the results of his first Afghan strategy review in March. He oversells the extent to which the new strategy is a radical departure from his predecessor’s, but more crucially oversells the extent to which he is committed to this strategy. And, like President Johnson in 1965 and unlike President Bush in 2007, he announces the low-ball estimate of new resources expected rather than the high-ball estimate. Military audiences hear what they want to hear — namely that the President is committed to resourcing the “new” COIN strategy –and do not hear what they do not want to hear — namely that the President is reserving the option not to resource adequately the new strategy and, indeed, to change his mind about the strategy in a few months time.

Shortly after the roll-out, President Obama and his key White House team take their collective eye off the ball and are largely uninvolved in the firing of General McKiernan and the hiring of General McChrystal. Indeed, President Obama has only one substantive interaction with the battlefield commander of his most important “war of necessity” for the next four months.
[---------------------------------------------]

The rest of this Foreign Affairs article @:
http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/10/21/obamas_military_problem_is_getting_worse

Oct 22, 2009 - 11:04 am 103. BC:

Given all the whiny, malicious and stupid BS that right wingers have been churning out in 24/7 shifts even before Obama was elected, this little jewel from way back in 2002 seems even more valid than ever. I notice that right wing blog articles tend to be big on items 8-11.

My feeling, though, is that there ought to be at least a 25th item, maybe something like “Exaggerate Public Opposition.” Fox News is very big on this, as evidenced by their Tea Party “coverage” like this and this.

Oct 22, 2009 - 11:04 am 104. Paul of Alexandria:

BC (28):

I dunno, they haven’t invaded the wrong country yet, made a complete botch of a hurricane emergency, or let the economy get punk’d by “smart guy” financiers.

Funny, I don’t recall anybody else doing any of those things either.

Oct 22, 2009 - 11:07 am 105. Tristan Yates:

They’re straight up reds and sometimes they forget to turn it off when they talk to the rest of us unenlightened folks. No need to overanalyze or psychoanalyze, that’s a liberal’s job.

What I’d love to see is a student go on TV and say “Yeah, Anita totally convinced me. Mao, Chavez, Castro, Stalin, they really get it. Go get some power and start cracking skulls and when its done you’ll have a socialist egalitarian utopia. Viva Obama!”

I also hope this Obama administration also shows Americans the difference between pseudo-intellectualism and real intellectuals. Anita’s two choices were just pathetic. Mao and Mother Teresa? What about Thomas Jefferson? Winston Churchill? Abraham Lincoln? George C. Marshall? Plato and Aristotle?

If you can blather on about social justice or sustainable economics for a couple hours, you’re not an intellectual, you’re just a moron who can string big words together and parrot the other morons who surround you without a thought.

Real intellectuals actually know stuff, like philosophy and history (western, not new age or revisionist) and even stuff like languages, math, and science. These people don’t know any of that stuff other than a few generalities about FDR or the civil rights movement and their favorite marxist revolutions.

Oct 22, 2009 - 11:13 am 106. RE:

Dumb? Or Intentionally destructive?

I think they are being intentionally destructive and are making us look dumb for letting them pull it off for as long as we have.

Oct 22, 2009 - 11:16 am 107. baal:

You know, all of the detritus of the leftover left that comprises the Obama administration is the “low hanging fruit” of political tactics here…and it’s working. What I fear is this:the republicans take congress and the white house back in 2010 and 2012 respectively through no fault of their own, relying on the dim witted mendacity of the party in power.
The republicans, I fear, will turn out to be the EXACT same squad of thieves that robbed this country while hiding behind the patriotic duty of the republican base to back them against the anti american left during a time of war.
The base, recently reinvigorated by the tea party movement, will have done all of the heavy lifting for them.
Who are the corrupt republican congressmen?
What are their names?
Will they still be standing when Nancy Pelosi and harry Reid are replaced by their republican equivalents?
I want a republican party dedicated EXCLUSIVELY toward the elimination of the national debt by means of budget cutting!
Did you hear those words? Let me say them again:BUDGET CUTS.
These words strike fear in the hearts of the left because they LIVE one way or another on the taxpayer dime.
If that requires fillibustering and shutting down the government, then so be it.

Oct 22, 2009 - 11:24 am 108. progressoverpeace:

103. RE:

Dumb? Or Intentionally destructive?

Both. They are just lucky that destruction is much easier than construction and any idiot can destroy a complicated system that it takes genius to build. A 12 year old would have no problem running an aircraft carrier aground if you put him in as captain. If the kid desired to do that, it would be a real cinch. That is essentially the situation we are facing. Thanks, 52%.

Oct 22, 2009 - 11:25 am 109. Rachel P.:

Roger,

You don’t need lil’ old’ blond, blue eyed Rachel to tell you your words again are spot on.

I, though, will say a word about one of the truly clueless things the Obama administration did last week.
Saying Fox news isn’t really a news organization.

It’s like saying the Yankees aren’t a baseball team.

Or that Keith Olbermann doesn’t have an Obama right or wrong agenda.

Actually, let me go farther than that. An administration that really believes in redistribution of wealth and is trying
to literally change our form of government isn’t really a United States Presidential administration.

It’s a bunch of Neo-CoMMs who flew in under the radar of common sense and took up residence in Washington.

Their plan is to reconciliate an amendment that gives Obama an extra three years in office during which time they
can truly destroy America. There’s no doubt about it. Obama may have been sworn in as President, but he’s the leader
of our sworn enemies.

Oct 22, 2009 - 11:26 am 110. David S:

@102. Tristan Yates:

Real intellectuals actually know stuff, like philosophy and history (western, not new age or revisionist) and even stuff like languages, math, and science. These people don’t know any of that stuff other than a few generalities about FDR or the civil rights movement and their favorite marxist revolutions.

If you are looking for real intellectuals in the GOP, you will find the pickings quite thin. People who know their philosophy and history, have language skills, and understand math and science, are not likely to support the anti-intellectual bent of the Republican party. Polls demonstrate that those who have a college education were more likely for Obama.

I like how you blithely dismiss the contributions of FDR and the civil rights movement, and throw in a marxist ad hominem for fun. Quite intellectual.

Peace.

DS

Oct 22, 2009 - 11:29 am 111. Terrye:

This is what happens when an adoring press fails to properly vet a candidate.

Oct 22, 2009 - 11:35 am 112. Real Deal:

Polls demonstrate that those who have a college indoctrination were more likely for Obama.

Fixed that for you.

Oct 22, 2009 - 11:41 am 113. Bilgeman:

#106 David S:
“Polls demonstrate that those who have a college education were more likely for Obama.”

Increasingly, and thanks to Obama’s great and good friends in the NEA, AFT and tenured academia, this means that the former PoliSci or Womyn’s Studies major who makes a living delivering my my pizzas is an Obama supporter.

Try another meme…that one isn’t much working.
(Much like the graduating Class of ‘08.)

Oct 22, 2009 - 11:44 am 114. gracie:

And those that have to actually work hard for a living in the US are likely to be GOP, or Independent. No bending over for these folks. However, they are the backbone of America. They are hardly anti-intellectual. They are the people that have built America, fought for America, died for America. They didn’t get a scholarship to college due to color, didn’t get job due to affirmative action, didn’t get welfare due to their butt being stuck on lazy.

The “intellectuals” like you and Obama are egotistical fools.

You sound undereducated, untried, and foolish.

PLUS!!! your “poll” is 18 months old.

Oct 22, 2009 - 11:50 am 115. gs:

Points taken, Roger Simon, but recall that Bill Clinton didn’t start to salvage his Presidency until he was considered all but unreelectable after the 1994 vote. (Remember the young White House staffer who told a decorated senior general that she didn’t talk to military people?) It’s still early.

I see little indication that, if they were entrusted with governance again, the GOP would perform any better than the Bush/Rove/DeLay/Lott crowd did. It’s cold comfort that the Republicans would wreck the country a bit more slowly than Obama is currently doing.

Oct 22, 2009 - 11:53 am 116. RE:

David S.

Polls demonstrate that those who have a college education were more likely for Obama.

It could be. One needs special training to deny basic common sense to the degree they did in casting their votes.

Oct 22, 2009 - 12:06 pm 117. Mike K:

Having watched the deterioration of a college education through the experience of my five children, I have no doubt that college graduates, especially recent graduates, are well represented in the Obama supporters. My youngest daughter’s freshman writing class last year at a major state university had, as its only textbook, a book on “whiteness studies.” Her final essay, worth 60% of her grade, was to be written on the topic of a white man abusing women or minorities. She chose William Kennedy Smith, at my suggestion, and the instructor completely missed the irony. Her last day of class, scheduled as a review, was taken up with an hour tirade on how Ronald Reagan was an actor.

Yes, there are a lot of Obama supporters there, at least until they get a job.

Oct 22, 2009 - 12:10 pm 118. MisterH:

#111 Terrye: “This is what happens when an adoring press fails to properly vet a candidate.”
To be more precise, this is the logical conclusion of having affirmative action sensibilities drilled into the public psyche for 30 years.

Oct 22, 2009 - 12:27 pm 119. Libertyship46:

It is one thing to study mass murderers like Mao and Hitler so as to bring attention to their many crimes and to insure that those crimes are never repeated. And even then, no sane or rational person would ever express any, any, admiration for either of them. But for someone like Anita Dunn to actually say that Mao was one of the political “philosophers” that she always turned to for “inspiration,” and in front of high school graduates no less, simply shows that she knows nothing about this killer or his barbaric methods, only probably what she learned as a rebellious college student in some Ivy League marxist coffee tavern. Please, old, used-up marxists like Dunn are a dime a dozen these days (can anyone say Van Jones or Bill Ayers). For the most part, Dunn and her ilk are simply historical anachronisms. China is the only major communist country still around and even today Mao would vomit if he saw what China has turned into in regards to their wholehearted acceptance of capitalism. So even the Chinese know that true communism is a joke and that its days are numbered. But none of this matters to Dunn, who would rather cling to her romantic beliefs regarding Maoism rather than confronting the ugly truth of what Mao actually stood for. I think the only reason she still has a job is because she’s leaving the White House in December. It will be interesting to see, though, if anyone in the mainstream media hammers Robert Gibbs about this. But I doubt it since the mainstream media is in the tank for the Obama administration.

Oct 22, 2009 - 1:05 pm 120. DirtCrashr:

To semi-steal a phrase from Mark Steyn, if you take a ten-gallons of Mother Theresa and stir in a dollop of Mao, the whole thing is going to stink of Mao…

Oct 22, 2009 - 1:11 pm 121. blotto:

DS: You are really reaching deep into the well. Each category is probably a statistical dead heat and even the post grad group is only a few points. And that is your “factual” basis for making the outrageous claims you did.

DS each time I read you, you seem more desparate. I know Kos or CAP must really put the screws to you to post, but dude you really need to relax.

Tristan’s comments were on target regarding O’s administration appointees especially his czars–Ms. Dunn is evidence. Obviously you cannot read.

Oct 22, 2009 - 1:20 pm 122. alanstorm:

David S. -

“If you are looking for real intellectuals in the GOP, you will find the pickings quite thin. People who know their philosophy and history, have language skills, and understand math and science, are not likely to support the anti-intellectual bent of the Republican party. Polls demonstrate that those who have a college education were more likely for Obama.”

Sorry, chuckles, Sentence 2 and sentence 3 have nothing to do with each other. I’ll agree that those with a college education (in general) were more likely to vote for Obama – the longer the indoctrination, the better the chance that it will take – but I disagree with sentence 2. If one possesses an actual understanding of those subjects (excepting perhaps language, which is more or less neutral), it would be almost impossible to fall for Obama’s horse manure. If you understand history, math and science, at least, you will immediately recognize that the man is a blithering idiot. What else do you call someone who espouses and embraces politico-economic ideas which have already been demonstrated as failures?

BTW, in answer to the title of the post, they couldn’t possibly be that dumb. I doubt it’s possible to be that stupid and still move under one’s own power.

Oct 22, 2009 - 1:22 pm 123. baal:

110. David S:Factor out the vanity liberal arts degrees and those numbers invert. Every waiter at the diner one block from where I live has a college degree. Every one of them voted for Obama, and not one of those degrees is worth the paper that it’s printed on.

Oct 22, 2009 - 1:25 pm 124. Thomas_L.....:

Samizdat – While you’re right, of course, I wouldn’t even mind if they actually read the essays and articles and commented without calling everyone the various names they love to sling around. However, most of them are just rude and ignorant and only come here to pull their pants down in public. Their moms get mad if they leave the basement that way, though. Nitwits like Vivo, Vapid S and Mo(e) Ho(ward), Mao and Then specialize in befouling themselves and proudly showing everyone.
Since Booblio felt free enough to call me an ___hole the other day, he’s fair game now. He thinks he’s so smart but hey, he reads me and I avoid his posts totally. How funny is that?

Oct 22, 2009 - 1:36 pm 125. David S:

@122. alanstorm:

I’ll agree that those with a college education (in general) were more likely to vote for Obama – the longer the indoctrination, the better the chance that it will take – but I disagree with sentence 2.

Baby steps. You’ve come to terms with the obvious – those who have advanced degrees lean left politically. You can call it indoctrination – at least it is based on empirical evidence, unlike the religious indoctrination so popular with the right wing. Belief in an imaginary, omnipotent friend is the result of indoctrination. Belief in repeatable, observable phenomenon is the result of education. It’s a fine line, I know.

If one possesses an actual understanding of those subjects (excepting perhaps language, which is more or less neutral), it would be almost impossible to fall for Obama’s horse manure. If you understand history, math and science, at least, you will immediately recognize that the man is a blithering idiot. What else do you call someone who espouses and embraces politico-economic ideas which have already been demonstrated as failures?

You will need to identify which politico-economic ideas you think have been demonstrated as failures. The biggest failure in history just left the building. Historians, mathematicians, scientists, economists all support Obama and his policies, very broadly. You would not find such support for McCain or the GOP.

BTW, in answer to the title of the post, they couldn’t possibly be that dumb. I doubt it’s possible to be that stupid and still move under one’s own power.

Judging by the spokesmen of the GOP, it is entirely possible for people who are stupid beyond belief to move under their own power. They are even occasionally coherent, though persistently dishonest.

Peace.

DS

Oct 22, 2009 - 1:51 pm 126. misanthropicus:

RE #110 David S: “[...] If you are looking for real intellectuals in the GOP, you will find the pickings quite thin. People who know their philosophy and history, have language skills, and understand math and science [...]”

“People who know their philosophy” – David, what’s that? And you’re talking about language skills? Fool, you’re hurting the very cause you try so “penniblement” (as the French would say), to support.
“… who know their philosopy” – me no intellectual that’s clear, since I don’t know my philosophy, and anyone with a minimal grasp of gnoseology would have a funny glance for you.

Further, David S, stop equating tenured college jobs with mighty intellectual achievement – the liberal arts departments are infested with liberal, anti-intellectual quacks who teach nothing, since all what propelled and maintains them in those cubicles are just 60-s crap & absurdities: studies in that, studies in that, studies in that… crap, crap, crap…

The authentic intellectuals in campuses (physics, math, etc. – yes, and philosophy as well), are actually constantly assaulted by the lib arts buffoon because their disciplines are rigorous and excellence in “Woodstock pygmys pansexual studies” doesn’t lead anywhere in astronomy or modern math.
Check the demographics of a master in philosophy or astrophysics, fool – those are not Obama voters, fool, in case you need a clarification about this –
And then check the long list of complaints filed by liberals regarding the math, architecture, physics and this type of college departments – oppression, descrimination, lack of diversity, etc.

David S – am I talking with Angela Davis or Ward Churchill by any chance? Oh, no it’s Barack Obama who got an anticipative PhD for intentional excellence.
Achievement confirmed by an anticipative Nobel Prize for intentional excellence – oh, my!

“… know their philosophy…” – heavens, what a dolt you are, David!

Oct 22, 2009 - 1:53 pm 127. Delia:

Blithering idiots or Evil masterminds, it really makes no big ‘dif’. The end results are the same.

Catastrophe.

Oct 22, 2009 - 2:03 pm 128. jodetoad:

I vote with those who say the administration is NOT stupid.

They are true believers, doing predictable things, to achieve their goals. The reason things aren’t going so well for them is that they believe in unreality, as has been demonstrated numerous times. Very predictable.

The likelihood their beliefs or goals will change is zero. The likelihood that the results of their policies will be similar to previous attempts is excellent. The main variable now is how successful we can be in obstructing them. We all need to consider how far we are willing to go.

One of the trolls asked above if we were all going to hold our breath and turn blue if ‘health care’ passes. We need to have a better plan than that, one that us ‘little people’ can do. How about millions of us increasing our withholding allowances to the max, to starve the beast? There may be other better ideas, we need to be thinking about it.

Oct 22, 2009 - 2:04 pm 129. SukieTawdry:

69. Samizdat: If you want to define dumb you need to look no further than the Vice President. Joe Biden is the Colonel Klink of Obama’s team. He never gets it right.

I beg to differ, Samizdat. There was at least one time when not only was Joe right, he was positively brilliant: I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man. Not before nor since has there been a more succinct, astute encapsulation of the phenomenon that was/is Barack Obama.

Oct 22, 2009 - 2:06 pm 130. SukieTawdry:

Historians, mathematicians, scientists, economists all support Obama and his policies, very broadly. You would not find such support for McCain or the GOP.

LOL. That, with its appropriately nonsensical links, is such a stupidly broad (or is it broadly stupid?) statement, one might wonder if S is an administration mole. Peace.

Oct 22, 2009 - 2:25 pm 131. Gringo:

110. David S:

If you are looking for real intellectuals in the GOP, you will find the pickings quite thin. People who know their philosophy and history, have language skills, and understand math and science, are not likely to support the anti-intellectual bent of the Republican party. Polls demonstrate that those who have a college education were more likely for Obama .

You showed your intellectual bent by choosing an April 2008 poll instead of a November 2008 post-election exit poll. In the CBS Exit Poll, all educational groups, from high school dropouts to those with graduate degrees,voted for Obama.

The group with the highest Obama/McCain margin, at 63% to 35% was the high school dropout group, undoubtedly the group that best “know their philosophy and history, have language skills, and understand math and science.” The Obama/McCain gap was smallest among those with a bachelor’s degree, 50% to 48%.

Back to the drawing board, DavidS.

Oct 22, 2009 - 2:28 pm 132. myth buster:

David S.- Good luck trying to find a nuclear engineer who falls for the BS put out by this administration. You may be able to convince a nuclear engineer of global warming; after all, it is in a nuclear engineer’s best interest to tax fossil fuels to death, but the rest of the fascist agenda doesn’t pass the smell test.

Oct 22, 2009 - 2:31 pm 133. Delia:

131. Gringo,

I think David S. and his ilk really believe the bile they spew.

George Soros needs to up the ante and bring start whipping his boys with barbed straps instead of olive branches.

When the trollboyz from da Soros hood get knee-capped by us they keep puking out, “May I have another, Sir/Madame?”

It’s comedy/tragedy.

Oct 22, 2009 - 2:44 pm 134. Delia:

Our newly minted 0bama bucks will have a negative -minus next to each faux numerical equivalence.

Spread the wealth around?

What wealth?

WHERE?

SHOW ME DA MONEY!

Oct 22, 2009 - 3:04 pm 135. Bilgeman:

#131 Gringo:
“The group with the highest Obama/McCain margin, at 63% to 35% was the high school dropout group, undoubtedly the group that best “know their philosophy and history, have language skills, and understand math and science.” The Obama/McCain gap was smallest among those with a bachelor’s degree, 50% to 48%.”

POW!

That was beautiful!

And while, I’m sure our trollboi would attribute it to your advanced educational attainments, all that was needed for the knockout blow was some elementary reading comprehension and arithmetical skills, plus I ken about 10 minutes on a search engine, yes?

Cyber jiu-jitsu at it’s finest…right here on PJM, folks!

Oct 22, 2009 - 3:05 pm 136. Delia:

135. Bilgeman:

“Cyber jiu-jitsu at it’s finest…right here on PJM, folks!”

LOL! INDEED. We are only minus the sound ‘fx’!

Oct 22, 2009 - 3:08 pm 137. misanthropicus:

RE #132/ myth buster:
[...] Good luck trying to find a nuclear engineer who falls for the BS put out by this administration. You may be able to convince a nuclear engineer of global warming; [...]

And more: A nuclear engineer is well aware of the Milankovich cycle and connects the dots in the larger planetary heating scheme – a supersitious & emotional mamifer like David S doesn’t.

A nuclear engineer knows that Mars has heating cycles remakably resembling this planet’s rhythms, yet, because he knows that Mars has almost no atmosphere, no mufflers and no farting cows, he sees in this planet’s heating something else than Madonna, David S, Ward Churchill and other “yes, we are the ones we’ve been waiting for” intellectuals – and a supersitious & emotional mamal like David S can’t figure out that.

Ignorance is strenght, David S, and I alway recognize this fortitude of yours – yet, to riff on VDH’s piece title, since your strength is nurtured by Groupthink, Newspeak, Doublethink and Obama’s Ministry of Truth, I lustily fight it.

You David S, liberal intellectual who knows his philosophy are a fool!

Oct 22, 2009 - 3:09 pm 138. David S:

@126. misanthropicus:

The authentic intellectuals in campuses (physics, math, etc. – yes, and philosophy as well), are actually constantly assaulted by the lib arts buffoon because their disciplines are rigorous and excellence in “Woodstock pygmys pansexual studies” doesn’t lead anywhere in astronomy or modern math.

Funny that you accept philosophers as intellectuals, yet fail to recognize that you are sparring with one. I know many masters and doctors of philosophy, and almost universally they are supporters of Obama and his policies. Most intellectuals are Obama voters – and calling me a fool doesn’t change that. My experience is that philosophers of all stripes were generally appalled and ashamed at the Bush/Cheney administration, and are relieved to now have a President in Obama who is intellectually and morally up to the task at hand.

Seriously, study the reaction of intelligent people to the platform offered by the GOP, versus that offered by the Democrats. Economists, historians, philosophers, physicists – ask anybody you like. If they have a three digit IQ, the odds are pretty good they voted for Obama.

@132. myth buster:

Good luck trying to find a nuclear engineer who falls for the BS put out by this administration. You may be able to convince a nuclear engineer of global warming; after all, it is in a nuclear engineer’s best interest to tax fossil fuels to death, but the rest of the fascist agenda doesn’t pass the smell test.

What kind of prevaricator are you? I know several nuclear engineers who are strong supporters of Obama. What makes you think that nuclear engineers don’t want health reform, tax reform and carbon controls? I don’t have to convince nuclear engineers of anything. Most people smart enough to make it through engineering school are smart enough to understand the importance of a progressive society to functioning democracy.

Really, if the only way you can make political judgements is using your sense of smell, you have bigger problems than I can address here.

Peace

DS

Oct 22, 2009 - 3:13 pm 139. Delia:

David S. defends child rapists.

Please.

Oct 22, 2009 - 3:19 pm 140. Ellen K:

I’ve been frankly appalled at the clumsy nature of the administration in regards to most things outside the public speaking realm. They’ve botched basic protocol for diplomatic gifts making it appear that some high school kid was sent out to buy something his family would like to present to heads of state. But more than that, the lapse on behavior and what seems to be a huge gap in knowledge on how a head of state is expected to treat another head of state. I’d like to assume that in their zeal for new blood that Obama had hired a bunch of fresh faces to fill those jobs, but then I hear that these are allegedly seasoned experts in their field. Seeing the dissolution of reason in their attacks and what looks like yet another incident of throwing someone under the bus to distract the media, this administration acts as if its sole purpose is to attack and make speeches. At some point the president is going to have to stay home and start governing rather than flying from one DNC high dollar dinner to the next. Leadership is sorely lacking in this White House.

Oct 22, 2009 - 3:28 pm 141. Harvard Yard Conservative:

“Hi. I’m Larry. This is my brother, Daryl, and this is my other brother, Daryl.”

Oct 22, 2009 - 3:38 pm 142. Instapundit » Blog Archive » ROGER SIMON: Is the White House Gang As Dumb As It Seems?…:

[...] ROGER SIMON: Is the White House Gang As Dumb As It Seems? [...]

Oct 22, 2009 - 3:53 pm 143. Donna V.:

In his book “Intellectuals,” Paul Johnson distinguishes between men and women of genuine learning and intellectuals.

Johnson’s defination of intellectual is one who values ideas more than human beings. To an intellectual, human beings are fodder for social engineering – not individuals, but groups to be either idealized, demonized, or shoved about like dirt. The important thing is the Big Plan, whether it happens to be the 5-Year Plan or the Great Leap Forward.

Perhaps the most virulent example what happens when intellectuals run a country is 1970’s Cambodia. Pol Pot and the leaders of the Khmer Rouge all studied in Paris in the 1950’s. Johnson calls them “Sartre’s children.” They decided, in their intellectual way, that Utopia would mean the abolition of cities and a return to the simple rural life. To accomplish that, they murdered 2 million people. The leaders were educated, but that didn’t mean they wanted the masses to be. Those with glasses were killed. Ah, yes, David S., life is just wonderful when leftist intellectuals run things!

As Buckley said, you’re better off being ruled by the first 100 names in the Boston phone book then by the Harvard faculty.

Oct 22, 2009 - 3:53 pm 144. An American-American:

No, Obama doesn’t think America is like Chicago. He thinks much bigger than that.

He sees America as another Venezuela. Both of them are countries, while Chicago is a city.

Oct 22, 2009 - 4:13 pm 145. Mike K:

They’ve botched basic protocol for diplomatic gifts making it appear that some high school kid was sent out to buy something his family would like to present to heads of state

I don’t think this was merely incompetence. There is a protocol office in the White House and in the Department of State. This was no accident. I see a mind working there. Maybe the Kenyan hates the British enough to sabotage the relationship with the US. I’m not saying Obama is a Kenyan citizen but he seems very interested in the politics of Kenya. His assault on US allies is more than ignorance or inattention. There is a policy there.

Oct 22, 2009 - 4:20 pm 146. Jim Baker:

Correct, #28 BC, you dunno.

Oct 22, 2009 - 4:21 pm 147. Bilgeman:

David S:
“Funny that you accept philosophers as intellectuals, yet fail to recognize that you are sparring with one. I know many masters and doctors of philosophy, and almost universally they are supporters of Obama and his policies.”

Why, David, you’re the Domino’s Pizza boy at the Harvard Faculty Lounge?

How wonderful for you!
(Do you still give ‘em a discount if you take more than 35 minutes?)

“My experience is that philosophers of all stripes were generally appalled and ashamed at the Bush/Cheney administration, and are relieved to now have a President in Obama who is intellectually and morally up to the task at hand.”

Most philosophers, I would wager, are employed by a university or college,(unlike yourself, who has been employed by Domino’s Pizza in the private sector), and are therefore heavily dependent on direct or indirect government spending so that they can buy more of your company’s pizzas.

Given the Alleged Hawaiian’s predilection for government spending, I can see them
“voting their pizza box” more than “voting Obama”.

“Economists, historians, philosophers, physicists – ask anybody you like. If they have a three digit IQ, the odds are pretty good they voted for Obama.”

Government paycheck, government paycheck,government paycheck and government paycheck…ah yup. Obamavoters all.

(D’you still carry the “Big New Yorker”?)

“What makes you think that nuclear engineers don’t want health reform, tax reform and carbon controls? ”

I couldn’t guess at their position on the first two items, but “carbon controls” would certainly stand to make the nukular industry a windfall, wouldn’t it?

(Hey…you might make assistant manager at the new Domino’s they open down by the new reactor! assistant Manager, think of it…it’s like being King….or God!)

Meanwhile, it’s morbidly fascinating having a discussion with a guy who has a gigantic hole blown out of his head like Gringo blew out of yours…and yet you don’t even seem to notice it.

It’s like you’re a brainless zombie or a golem or something.

(Someone give the pizza-zombie a tip, huh?)

Oct 22, 2009 - 4:23 pm 148. Trouble:

Baby steps. You’ve come to terms with the obvious – those who have advanced degrees lean left politically. You can call it indoctrination – at least it is based on empirical evidence, unlike the religious indoctrination so popular with the right wing.

That’s really funny. Philosopher, maybe, but the concept of apples and oranges continues to elude….

Philosophy is based on empirical evidence? Oh come on.

Empirical evidence indicates to me that, yes, it is possible to be too rich, too thin… and/or too educated.

Oct 22, 2009 - 4:43 pm 149. Mr Lucky:

138. David S.

“Most intellectuals are Obama voters – and calling me a fool doesn’t change that. ”

Then what should one call you?

“My experience is that philosophers of all stripes were generally appalled and ashamed at the Bush/Cheney administration, and are relieved to now have a President in Obama who is intellectually and morally up to the task at hand.”

Is the task at hand to seize your property? Would you object to 100% of you resources being “morally” seized?

When is the government’s cut enough? What is the “moral” percentage that a moral intellectual will accept?

Oct 22, 2009 - 4:43 pm 150. Paul A'Barge:

They are not stupid. They are evil.

Oct 22, 2009 - 4:45 pm 151. Delia:

“Want fries with that?”.

-Results of Leftist education indoctrination.

Oct 22, 2009 - 4:48 pm 152. Delia:

Hold the mustard and the MAO, BTW!

Oct 22, 2009 - 4:49 pm 153. Donna V.:

Bilgeman: Actually, I’ve always thought of David S. as an Starbucks expresso maker with an angst-filled expression, but I suspect you’re closer to the truth. Well, if I could, I’d buy you a pizza for writing that post. (David S. could deliver. Give him a 5 cent tip and tell him to trust in the government, it’ll take care of him.)

Oct 22, 2009 - 5:00 pm 154. Delia:

151. Donna V.,

Leftists ‘collectivate’ other people’s moula er dollars er ‘pesos’, then steal er ‘distribute’ as they see fit and act like thugs er ‘heroes’ for using other people’s hard earned sweat, blood and tears er ‘evil greed’.

David S. the hot mess of ‘progress’ is a prime example of regressive-depressive-Messianic-messism.

Ouch. I think I broke my ‘ism’ button.

Oct 22, 2009 - 5:18 pm 155. texexpatriate:

Obama’s staff and appointees are not at all dumb. But they are—emphasize are—true believers in socialism. Some are communists, some are fascists, all are socialists, and the most remarkable thing about it is that many of them are so ignorant they don’t know what they are. Mark Levin lumps all tyranny-promoting people under the label Statist, but I hate to use it, it sounds so empty. We know what Communists, Socialists, and Nazis are. The word Statist does not bring much of a picture to mind.

A person can be very bright, score high on I.Q., and be dumb as a post. So far as I can see, most so-called Liberals are driven by their emotions and can’t think rationally except in every-day circumstances, while the “elite” Liberal at the top of national politics may know exactly what he is and plots things out (no matter how irrational or disproved by empricial and historical observation, such as socialism wherever it is found) in a rational way.

There will always be these kinds of fools, and they will always have to be fought and defeated. Obama and his “court” are chief among them today in our nation.

Oct 22, 2009 - 5:23 pm 156. Now and Then:

152 Delia

Leftists collect other people’s money and provide services. Rightists collect other people’s money and keep it.

Oct 22, 2009 - 5:25 pm 157. Steve:

Congratulations for using the word “dumb”! While Obama is criticized for his radical politics, very cleverly hidden by MSM reporting, we rarely see anyone using the true description of Obama’s outstanding characteristic…STUPIDITY! Recall that we are not allowed to learn anything about his academic record prior to his affirmatve action admittance to Harvard. It is doubtful that he could have passed the SAT exams without major additions to his test score based on skin color. This man did not know how many states there were in the U.S. When he cited the occurrence of 10,000 deaths during a Kansas tornado, he clearly showed that he had not mastered third grade arithmetic, where the key elements of relating counting in the decimal system to quantity are taught, that is the meaning of units, tens, hundreds and thousands in relation to size etc. This year, there was release of a hand written letter to a child correspondent that showed he did not know the difference between the verb “advise” and the noun, “advice”. Certainly his demonstration of major flaws in his appreciation of recent history as exemplified in his many speeches are additional indicators that we are dealing with the person who is easily the stupidest occupant of the white house ever. But yet, even conservatives refer to him as “highly intelligent”. We are dealing with a very stupid person and unless we understand that fact, we will misinterpret recent events involving this administration. Of course, success in Chicago politics is not correlated with IQ or knowledge of any subject except use of race baiting.

Steve

Oct 22, 2009 - 5:33 pm 158. Punkindrublic:

Gotta wonder if the caller on Rush today didn’t have a potentially better idea of investing in lead, vice gold. Time and public “opionion” will tell.

Oct 22, 2009 - 5:40 pm 159. alanstorm:

“Baby steps. You’ve come to terms with the obvious – those who have advanced degrees lean left politically.”

So, those who are indoctrinated longer are likely to lean left – that’s what I said. I suppose you might be right, especially with the fluff degrees like philosophy and the social “sciences”, but unfortunately for you, an “advanced” degree does not imply anything past the fact that…the holder has an advanced degree. You’ve heard the definitions of BS, MS and PhD? Bull(!^&, More of Same, and piled higher and deeper? There’s a reason that cliche exists.

“You can call it indoctrination – at least it is based on empirical evidence, unlike the religious indoctrination so popular with the right wing.”

I’m an atheist – your dig at believers is immaterial, as are most of your posts. As for your first sentence, it is nonsensical – a PhD in English Literature is based on empirical evidence…how, exactly?

“You will need to identify which politico-economic ideas you think have been demonstrated as failures.”

Here’s two: How about socialized medicine, which is breaking the budgets of all those wonderful European countries the left so admire?

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1560728/socialized_medicine_in_europe.html?cat=5

And how about the incredibly idiotic concept of “green jobs” which killed two or more existing jobs for every one created?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a2PHwqAs7BS0

“The biggest failure in history just left the building.”

Actually, the biggest failure in history only entered the building 9 months ago. Please stop the Bush-bashing. It’s childish and has no bearing on the current topic.

“Historians, mathematicians, scientists, economists all support Obama and his policies, very broadly. You would not find such support for McCain or the GOP.”

I don’t support McCain. I’m not very fond of the GOP right now either, since the current leadership is only marginally less dense than the Socialist Party (to give its more accurate name.) Why do you suppose that opposing the current morons in the administration makes one fond of the GOP? And your cites are pathetic – Leftist historians and economists support Obama (now there’s a shocker), a White House site on math education, and an article from PRIOR to the election are supposed to impress me? How does this translate to “broad” support?

“Judging by the spokesmen of the GOP, it is entirely possible for people who are stupid beyond belief to move under their own power. They are even occasionally coherent, though persistently dishonest.”

Once again for the brain-dead philosopher, the GOP’s problems are not under discussion, and are immaterial. And dishonest? Please. Obama’s setting new records daily.

Your problem is that you equate “years of education” with “intelligence and ability”. You sound exactly like a stereotypical ivory-tower intellectual. When i was a kid, “intellectual” implied intelligence. Judging by current usage, it now refers to “someone who lives entirely within his own head”

Oct 22, 2009 - 5:56 pm 160. Delia:

153.,

Leftists want to do as little work as possible and spend other’s hard earned money to grease their own wheels whilst taking ‘cred’ for being supposed ‘heroes’ whilst the elitists in the background are pocketing the gravy. ACORN is a prime example.

Conservatives want to keep as much as their own money that they RIGHTLY earn so they can FREAKIN’ survive and take care of themselves and their own.

NO. It doesn’t take a friggin’ village. What it takes is for people to look after their own and MAN up to their responsibilities. That is the biggest gift you can give to society! Look after your OWN and then we are ALL looked after!

DUHHHHHHHHHHH.

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:00 pm 161. Wondering in CT:

Roger – You don’t make the observation that Dunn’s husband is Robert (Bob) Bauer, President Obama’s personal attorney. Anyone waiting for her to get thrown under the ObamaExpress is dreaming.

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:05 pm 162. Now and Then:

I see dumb people, too, and it’s not Alan Grayson (my new hero).

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/node/32202

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:10 pm 163. ETAB:

david s- there is no way that you are a genuine, trained philosopher. Your constant logical errors preclude that.

Your claim that you know ‘many’ philosophers, and that they and ‘most’ intellectuals are supporters of Obama is a basic fallacy of generalization – without evidence – and ad populum.

Your claims that IF someone has a 3-digit IQ, THEN, they’ll support Obama is a basic modus ponens misargument, because there is no causal connection between the two.

Equally, your movement from ‘knowing several engineers’ to defining their views to embrace ALL nuclear engineers is yet another logical fallacy, mixing up the particular with the universal.

There’s no way that you are a ‘philosopher’; or, you might be in first year undergrad. Again, a basic book on logic and critical thinking would benefit you. Possibly.

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:14 pm 164. Mr Lucky:

153. Now and Then.

“Leftists collect other people’s money and provide services. Rightists collect other people’s money and keep it.”

I am a leftist by virtue of the fact that I know what is best for you. There are others who I agree with that agree with me that I know what is best for you, therefore you cannot dispute this.

I will collect money from you and the service I will provide you with is the service of allowing you to lick my boot, or any other boot I and those who agree with me consider worthy. Your bootlicking will be rewarded with a promise that at some point in the future that you will enjoy the bootlicking, (if you already do not).

Since it is unavoidable for you to avoid collecting other people’s money and still exist, you will be keeping money in your possession at some point in time. Therefore your bootlicking load will be increased in proportion to your monetary keepings, which I will confiscate as well.

If, in the event your tongue becomes incapacitated, the healthcare plan will provide you with a tongue transplant, tongue provided by an errant citizen, otherwise described as a kulak

Happy bootlicking citizen!

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:22 pm 165. brucio:

Somebody PLEASE do a Photoshop of Gibbs as Mao Jr!

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:22 pm 166. Al Reasin:

This administration is infringing upon my economic freedom and civil liberties; congress is also proposing unconstitutional laws.

We should be prepared to follow the example set in Tennessee after the governor and legislature proposed to vote in and approve a state income tax resulting in the 1999 Tennessee Tax Revolt. The MSM seems to have neglected to report much on this, so go to glennreynolds.com/?p=8 and http://www.sweetliberty.org/issues/staterights/tenn_taxprotest.htm for some details.

We see that OUR employees are ignoring OUR wishes as they occupy OUR two Houses in OUR Capitol. With the reported 26,000 TEA Party organizations in our great country, we could make life difficult for those cloistered in DC.

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:27 pm 167. misanthropicus:

RE #138/ David S:
[...] Funny that you accept philosophers as intellectuals, yet fail to recognize that you are sparring with one. I know many masters and doctors of philosophy, and almost universally they are supporters of Obama and his policies. [...]

Oh, Dave! So you are a philosopher! While most people think of philosophers as clever types, you apparently fail to meet this stereotype – anyway, thanks for notifying everyone that you officially are a philosopher. I am impressed.

Now, my poor Dave, here comes a nastier part – history shows that philosophers are universally skeptical folks, in human nature matters distrusting the bipeds beyond misanthropy’s borders (4.000 years of recorded history fully justifying this), and vis-a-vis natural sciences being equally skeptical and reluctant to buy theories or interpretations based just on a mountbank’s claims.

Now I’ll pick from the lot I described above Socrates, Diogenes, Cicero, Bacon, Hobbes, Spinozza, Cartesius, Voltaire, Kant, Schopenhaer, Bergson, Russell and Popper and I really wonder, as I recall their views, whether they would stand up and stampede, mooing “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for!” or “We gonna change the world!”

Or, for a very sophisticated mind like you – would any of those guys go for Obama’s and liberals’ fraudulent gesticulation?

Oh, Dave, poor thing – I was so moved learning that you see yourself as a philosopher!
Then when you disclosed that you know many other master and doxctors in philosophy – you are beautiful soul, Dave!

And for all other PJM active posting people – please, let Dave go! He is a pure soul, has business cards lettered “Philosopher”! Let him travel to his pastures, please…

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:32 pm 168. AST:

Dunn also seemed to think that manipulating the media was a pretty cool thing. That might be fair game in a campaign, but at we see now, trying to control the media from the White House is not only contrary to the spirit of the First Amendment, but very, very stupid.

From http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/19/white-house-official-says-obama-team-controlled-media-coverage-campaign/ :

“Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn’t absolutely control,” Dunn said, admitting that the strategy “did not always make us popular in the press.”

Dumb. Very dumb. Not even friendly media like to be taken for chumps.

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:43 pm 169. qrstuv:

Now & Then says:
“Leftists collect other people’s money and provide services. Rightists collect other people’s money and keep it.”

I think it’s pretty important to look out how these people “collect” money.

Leftists collect it via brute force. You go to jail if you don’t pay your taxes.

Rightists collect it in exchange for goods or services that someone voluntarily purchases from them.

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:50 pm 170. Danard:

“Only a true moral nitwit would say anything approving of Mao now.”

He was a snappy dresser. Olive drab lil’ dutchboy hat…

Oct 22, 2009 - 6:58 pm 171. Delia:

168. qrstuv:

“Leftists collect it via brute force. You go to jail if you don’t pay your taxes.”

HA! If THAT were only true then a good portion of the BarryS. admin would be workin’ and a toilin’ on a chain-gang instead of livin’ large and in charge in da big ‘big’ house.

Oct 22, 2009 - 7:05 pm 172. Bilgeman:

#166 misanthropicus:
“And for all other PJM active posting people – please, let Dave go! He is a pure soul, has business cards lettered “Philosopher”! Let him travel to his pastures, please…”

Just a minute, Delia and Donna wanted Diet Coke, and he forgot my order of wings!

Ah well, let the “Double Cheese and Pepperoni Philosopher” go.

Once they see the big money to be made in the private sector, there just ain’t no keepin’ ‘em down on the college, is there?

Oct 22, 2009 - 7:16 pm 173. Delia:

170. Bilgeman,

Heh! misanthropicus is right. We should let Dave get on to bigger, better and much more important philosophical things in his incredibly rewarding, loving, kindly, beautiful life. We should all be thankful just to have been touched a wee tidge by his ‘perfection’ of thought and ideology. Woody & Roman need you, DS.

Can I skip the black olives without being called a racist? I prefer the Kermit colored ones…it’s a ‘taste’ thang…

Oct 22, 2009 - 7:34 pm 174. Delia:

Bilge,

David’s proctologist is also his psychiatrist.

Oct 22, 2009 - 7:37 pm 175. jdkchem:

“I dunno, they haven’t invaded the wrong country yet,”

Afghanistan was the wrong country?

“made a complete botch of a hurricane emergency,”

Ray Nagan and the unused busses, Kathleen Blanco stating LA was prepared.

“or let the economy get punk’d by “smart guy” financiers.”

Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Franklin Raines, Goldman Sachs, Fannie Mae, Freddi Mac, etc.

BC, fortunately for you you don’t need to remember to breath.

Oct 22, 2009 - 8:14 pm 176. ss:

My 2 cents about the Mao reference–not trying to be a troll: Liberals think they can say anything, because their Democratic status immunizes them against accusations of bad intentions. They are liberal, thus they are good. So: they end up saying stupid things no conservative would dare utter. But: it doesnt’ mean she means to honor Mao or literally respects his philosophy. She was trying to be dryly funny by having wildly contrasting “favorite” philosphers. One a saint and one a Communist Dictator. {rim shot!} If she’d picked a different, funnier, monster as a “favorite philosopher”, like Genghis Khan or Jack the Ripper, there’d be no mistake that it was not serious adulation. It was just a bad taste choice of historical monsters, in the “too soon” category. Democrats just don’t think about these things because they wear their virtue on their voter registration cards.

Oct 22, 2009 - 8:19 pm 177. progressoverpeace:

157. Steve:

Steve, to add to your list, The Precedent has never mastered the use of the indefinite article. Listen to him when he speaks extemporaneously. He doesn’t use the word, “an”. He prefers a long “a”. He says, “aaay illegal”, or “aaay enormous”. It’s interesting how no one has ever really pointed that out, but it’s on just about every bit of TOTUSless video of The Precedent speaking.

ANd his “profit and earnings ratios” showed that the moron never learned that “and” is never used to describe ratios. This is something that any 8th grader would know, and indicates that The Precedent’s mathematical abilities are quite pathetic. Evidently, word problems were never his forte. LOL. I give him an upper bound of 430 on the Math section of his SATs.

Oct 22, 2009 - 8:29 pm 178. Hyde Parker:

I live in Obama’s old 1996-2004 IL State Senate district and have worked in IL state and Chicago regional and local government since the 1970s.

Believe me when I tell you, this group is exactly what they appear to be. There’s no deep deceptive game, you’re not missing anything.

This bunch is reasonably intelligent in a crafty sort of way, but has no knowledge or sense of history or the tragic, has never known great personal loss which can temper the soul. A bit smarter than the average bear, but not nearly as intelligent as they think they are. Humility–not a shred.

They truly believe the US has been a major blight on the people of the world for generations. They totally agree with everything teh REv. Wright said on the Trinity DVD’s that got some play last year, and Bill Ayers is a hero to them.

They are morally corrupt but also financially corrupt as well. Michelle’s $327K job at U of Chicago Hospitals, a 200% raise the month after Barack elected Senator, form a $106K job that was already more make-work than real… and they eliminated her job as soon as Barack won the Presidency and she wouldn’t want to come back.

He was a failure as a community organizer, basically never accomplished anything in his life, except to win elections where the opposition self-destructed.

They’re bullies and everything your parents told you about bullies applies.

On and on.

Oct 22, 2009 - 8:30 pm 179. rc:

“When does the housecleaning start?”

On November 4, 2010. It won’t finish until November 4, 2012 though…rough days ahead.

Oct 22, 2009 - 8:38 pm 180. Stevemmn:

Obama didn’t even run that good of a campaign. He had the benefit of a bottomless checkbook courtesy of rich fatcat liberal contributors and he received millions of dollars in free advertising from the “mainstream” media, which abandoned all pretense of fairness and in effect actively campaigned for him.

He basically ran against George W. Bush, and his real opponent ran one of the most inept campaigns in modern history (Picking Sarah Palin as a running mate is about the only thing McCain did right.). He had no track record to speak of which meant he had no skeletons in his closet to defend. Well actually he had plenty, but the liberal media refused to cover them. It will be a whole different ballgame when 2012 comes around and he has to defend the disaster that he has created.

Oct 22, 2009 - 9:38 pm 181. Do Your Worst « The Rhetorican:

[...] [...]

Oct 22, 2009 - 9:48 pm 182. myth buster:

rc. Election Day is the day after the first Monday of November, not necessarily November 4. This year it’s November 3, and in 2012, it’s the 7th.

Oct 22, 2009 - 9:59 pm 183. Nichevo:

One thing I am always noticing in leftists is not merely the insistence on their intellectual superiority, but the desperation with which they clutch this garment to themselves. My friend Mike (sadly no longer with us, felled by kidney disease in his early thirties) had his entire identity wrapped up in “how smart he was,” which to me was sad because there is in fact so much more to life.

I told him often that there were greater values than intelligence and he should aspire to them as well, the more so as IQ was pretty much going to continue to be what it is. In contrast, character attributes such as decency, generosity, fairness, kindness, honesty, honor, courage and the like, as well as non-IQ mental values like wisdom, judgment, and even charisma and dexterity, are both cultivatable and essential to living in the world with one’s fellow men. Plenty of evil geniuses out there, plenty of wiseguys, plenty of insufferable sophist pricks, but not enough good people. IQ or a smart mouth is to virtue as having good looks or a big wang is to being a good lover – in some cases it may even be a hindrance.

Part of Mike’s problem was due to his illnesses, which bent him from a young age away from the physical world; another his political home environment; but he did the best I could. As he was my best friend, I suppose I found those virtues in him, or their potential, enough to continue our association ;>, but I found it important not to let him slide.

Part of the problem as I see it is, because people are gifted with some verbal fluency that passes as intelligence, they like to milk that. They seem to regard those of ‘lesser brain’ as their lawful prey. He or she is less bright than I, therefore I may rule them; I may take advantage of them; evidently in the eyes of some, I may make like a Reaver from Firefly:

On one encounter with Reavers, Zoe said that “If they take the ship, they’ll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their clothing. And if we’re very, very lucky, they’ll do it in that order.” (thanks, Wiki)

If they wanted to be human beings and my equals, they should have brushed up for their SATs, eh? But as the little girl in True Grit said, I do not hold to that.

(My counter-tests are twofold: one’s fitness to survive in a state of nature, or one’s contribution to GDP; but I am not the prisoner of my own concept, and I recognize quite fully that, say, a 1yo or a 99yo cannot be measured fairly on such a scale. OTOH our philosopher-king manqués here would seem ripe to be weighed in such balances. Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin, folks! — Ah, but the ability to recall and apply Scripture doesn’t count…)

Oct 22, 2009 - 10:44 pm 184. Richard:

I was willing to give Team Obama the benefit of the doubt up to a point. That point was back in March or so.

Oct 22, 2009 - 11:09 pm 185. Nichevo:

Pardon me, did I just lose the plot? It is getting late…

I was just allowing how there are many equally- or even more-important traits or virtues for life on earth than intelligence, especially the mere verbal fluency which is so often mistaken for same. And how the possessors of this trait seem as prone to the if-all-you-have-is-a-hammer-then-everything-starts-to-look-like-a-nail problem.

An analogy: some people have good looks or good builds or are well-endowed; but not only do these gifts (and they are gifts, there is no virtue in having a large penis or big breasts or pretty blue eyes) not inherently make one a good lover or suitable mate, in some cases it can be an actual hindrance.

In David S’s case and others, maybe somebody’s been telling them that

||

is eight inches, but whether that’s true or not, it isn’t desirable to be with a flasher, a philanderer, a two-pump chump, a hygiene-is-so-bourgeois type, a fellow who can’t seem to find the right hole, one who thinks No is a three-letter word, or that your daughter is even hotter than you.

Oct 22, 2009 - 11:10 pm 186. jharp:

“Are the Obamanoids as dumb as they seem?”

The Obamanoids couldn’t be nearly as smart as the teabaggers who protest the government “getting their hands” onto my Medicare.

Sheesh.

Are you unaware of how unpopular the GOP is today? Only 20% of Americans lay claim to being republican. And the Congressional republicans have a favorable rating of 17%.

17%!

Oct 22, 2009 - 11:21 pm 187. Tristan Yates:

David S – I wish everyone who graduated from college developed a real intellectual foundation. Actually we should be doing it by high school. We know that’s not the case.

Most people who get Masters and Doctorates in social sciences (including economics) from ivy league schools may think that they’re educated and enlightened and but in fact they know nothing of value and are fit only to inhabit universities, liberal think tanks, and now, our government. If they vote for Obama because all of their fellow intellectuals think Republicans are evil and heartless, its not a sign of intellectualism but quite the opposite.

If you actually know philosophy and history – forget about math and science for now – you’re not going to fall for Obama’s paper thin rhetoric about shared sacrifice and government solutions. You can just walk through history and find dozens of examples where leaders promised to solve all of the people’s problems if they had some more power and then abused that power and trust – Mao is but one of many.

But aside from that, my point is that there’s just a basic knowledge of the American and Western philosophical and historical tradition and an awareness of 20th century history that’s missing and most people don’t even know its missing or why its important.

America occupies a unique place in history – her Constitutional Republic and her values are the pinnacle of Western Philosophy. She is surrounded by failed states, both in geography (Mexico, Cuba, Haiti) and in time (wars in Europe and fall of their empires, collapse of socialism in USSR and China, etc). She’s been at war, including civil war, but is still standing. She rebuilt the world in the 1950s and 1960s and all of the prosperous Asian economies have been heavily influenced by American success stories of wealth and innovation.

All that is something to learn from and build upon, not to try to change, and I would even say that if you’re trying to change it then you don’t understand it.

Also to be clear I don’t consider myself an intellectual although I do try to learn and think critically about history and our country. True intellectuals are few and far between but we have one right here (VDH of course). And we were lucky enough to have at several in our Revolution, which is probably why we didn’t go the way of the French – study revolution, including Mao, and all you generally find are bloodbaths and broken promises.

Oct 23, 2009 - 1:30 am 188. Toads:

Did you SEE the video of that reptilian Anita Dunn???

SHE should be called Mao-Tse-TONGUE.

Oct 23, 2009 - 2:18 am 189. Thomas Fink:

“Did you SEE the video of that reptilian Anita Dunn???

SHE should be called Mao-Tse-TONGUE.”

Yeah, and she does not even need shapeshifting. Which is always a hassle for DavidS when delivering pizza (”baked fresh on hot philosophers stone”).

Oct 23, 2009 - 4:16 am 190. Peter the Bubblehead:

88. elaine wrote:
And, whether you credit it or not, Obama has started down the path of transforming this nation, just as he promised he would five days before the election. Of course, back then, he didn’t define HOW he was planning on transforming America…

Peter writes: In the months leading up to the election last year, all the leftists kept gushing about how Obama (now The Won) was going to ‘change’ America.

I kept pointing out;
Hitler ‘changed’ Germany.
Castro ‘changed’ Cuba.
Chavez ‘changed’ Venezuela.

I was called a racist for my insight. I find little comfort in having been proved completely correct in only 10 months.

Hey America! Next time a candidate offers you ‘Hope’ and ‘Change,’ can you spend at least a couple of minutes determining exactly WHAT ‘hope’ and ‘change’ mean?

Thanks libtards! Because of you, my child and grandchildren (assuming my family survives long enough to reach the point of having grandchildren) will not be able to gorw up in the greatest country in the history of the world like I did.

Oct 23, 2009 - 5:04 am 191. Bilgeman:

#184 Tristan Yates:
“If you actually know philosophy and history – forget about math and science for now – you’re not going to fall for Obama’s paper thin rhetoric about shared sacrifice and government solutions.”

You put it nicely, but can I just point out that they’re not THAT good at lying,(since they’ve never scrimmaged against the varsity) so all that’s really needed is a good basic knowledge of the difference between sh!t and shine-ola.

Oct 23, 2009 - 5:09 am 192. Poor Citizen:

Small storm, small teacup. So I have no opinion except to say that the old chairman was indeed, not a politically correct fella. Man, I remember when china and russia were are adversaries. That song writer was correct, All things Must Pass eh?

Oct 23, 2009 - 5:13 am 193. Mike D:

>> I had several, as well as a copy of Mao’s poetry, if you can believe it.

Roger, my wife, who survived the cultural revolution, was reading a Chinese article the other night which has announced a recent discovery: the large majority of Mao’s work was written by others. ( I had actually predicted this in a conversation with her years earlier.)

My father -in-law knew Mao personally. Years later Mao sent him to a “labor” camp for 10 years. He survived, a broken man.

Oct 23, 2009 - 5:18 am 194. bandit:

All the crap about Mao is just the sophmore political club rhetoric. As long as they’re in their little close minded cocoon that nonsense is very popular.

Oct 23, 2009 - 5:41 am 195. Thomas_L......:

Bilgeman – Never scrimmaged against the varstiy? Good one! My only question. Where [I]is[/I] the varsity, dammit? We could use them about now.

Oct 23, 2009 - 5:59 am 196. Michael Smith:

David S. claimed:

Historians, mathematicians, scientists, economists all support Obama and his policies, very broadly.

This is a form of the logical fallacy of argumentum ad verecundiam, or “appeal to authority”. “Smart people support Obama so his policies must be right.”

People resort to fallacies like this when they have no actual, valid arguments to offer, which is precisely the position the left finds itself in today.

The events of the 20th century thoroughly refuted the claims of the left’s two central animating ideas: socialism and pacifism.

Contrary to the claims of the left, socialism, where it was tried, did not lift the masses out of poverty — it starved them to death by the millions. And pacifism did not bring world peace — it invited the horrific aggressions of two world wars that resulted in the slaughter of millions more. When the historical track record of one’s ideas is global-scale mass death, then one becomes desperate to evade the facts and find some other grounds on which to argue.

Hence, the resort to the sort of lame fallacy we see here from “David S” — it‘s the only sort of argument he‘s got.

Many smart people fell for the claims pushed by the socialists and pacifists. That they did so before the world saw what horrors these ideas unleashed is, perhaps, forgivable. That they are willing to now evade those results and support a clown like Obama is not.

And here you can observe the root of Obama’s popularity and why the left is in love with this empty suit: He’s able to pitch socialism and pacifism with a straight face, as if they are somehow shiny, new and promising ideas, as if the 20th century never occurred. It takes a special kind of liar — along with a ludicrously gullible collection of “intellectuals” and mass media — to pull off a deception of this magnitude.

Oct 23, 2009 - 6:08 am 197. Science Proves Obama Administration Is A Bully Because It’s Incompetent « Unfavorable Odds:

[...] Are the Obamanoinds as dumb as they seem? [...]

Oct 23, 2009 - 6:29 am 198. It’s the DC Water, Roger «:

[...] October 2009 by hamerdinger Roger Simon asks if the Obama Administration is really as dumb as they are acting. Team Obama certainly ran a brilliant election campaign, but since they left Chicago for Washington, [...]

Oct 23, 2009 - 6:45 am 199. Thomas_L.....:

Michael Smith – Very nicely put, sir. The trouble with these so-called intellectuals is that they are over schooled and under educated. The very fact that Vapid S uses these illogical attempts to make some fallacious point, would seem to prove it.

Oct 23, 2009 - 6:54 am 200. Bilgeman:

#190 Thomas L:

Where’s the varsity?

The American people.
Look at the Rasmussen reports daily presidential tracking poll history, and you’ll see that Obama’s approval ratings first went and stayed net negative around the July 4th weekend.

He’s been underwater ever since.

He’s not sermonizing to some poor terrorized wretches trapped in one of Tony Rezko’s slums by government housing policies anymore.

We are a free people, and after giving him a chance, have apprently decided that he’s a shuck-and-jive artist with some neo-Marxist political allies.

And to their credit, the foreign politicians, too.

Sarkozy ain’t impressed, and Putin has manifestly made Obama into his b*tch.
The Iranians spit on him faster than they’d have dared to try it with “W”.

He ain’t fooling them boys, either.

No-one’s buyin’ it, ace, so Take your three card-monte and your cardboard box you run the game on and move on down the block.

Twenty years in a union, and I see the same thing. The fat corrupt doofus wows his yes-men with his philosophizin’, and it palys pretty well in the union hall’s very tightly managed meeting, but everyone in the joint knows that the quality and depth of the Big Man’s “Deep Insights” make Dr. Seuss look like St. Augustine.

Oct 23, 2009 - 7:30 am 201. Delia:

Hey, y’all are fergettin’ the bright side!

When we are all impoverished, cold and starving, we’ll finally be ‘pitied’ for once by the rest of the world.

We won’t be ‘da, big, mean, bad guy’ any longer.

Golly. I feel all warm and squishy inside just thinkin’ about it. We will FINALLY be popular and LERVED!

Oct 23, 2009 - 7:41 am 202. misanthropicus:

Re #188/Poor Citizen: [...] Man, I remember when china and russia were are adversaries. [...]

… and adversaries they will be – “de plus ca change, de plus la meme” the French would say.

Geopolitical interests and necessities don’t really change in ten or fifteen years (yesterday Dick Cheney reminded Obama about the fact that alliances transcend not years, but even generations – mystery notion for those supporting transformational presidents and radical shifts in America’s foreign policies ?!?).

It is true that the trans-Pacific rivalry will be the chief issue of the current historical period, period for which Russia has signed up with China as scavenger. However, in longer term this situation is likely to be pushed aside by the dimensions of the trans-Siberian rivalry – situation in which both China and Russia will return to Washington hats in hand, vying for support. (Hope Obama won’t be in the office to take the decision in that matter)

best regards -

Oct 23, 2009 - 7:50 am 203. Maurice:

I’ve lately come to calling this administration The Student Council.

Oct 23, 2009 - 8:07 am 204. Bill:

These people are not stupid. They had a well laid out plan before assuming office. The apparent bumbling about is a diversion. They think the average American can be fooled.

Oct 23, 2009 - 8:08 am 205. Thomas_L......:

Bilgeman – Whoah there Tiger! I’m on your side. I see that the American people, or some at least, are waking up and I enjoy the reverse populism but thrilling rhetoric aside, I still have to ask, where’s the varsity? Really. Jindal? Huckabee? Romney? I mean, I like Sarah Palin but she needs some taxi squad experience, her own self, before she’s Tom Brady.

Oct 23, 2009 - 8:09 am 206. Delia:

196. Maurice:

“I’ve lately come to calling this administration The Student Council.”

LOL. Considering Barack’s Teleprompter er ’speech’ writer is a young, ex-Starbuck’s employee…

That about sums it up nicely!

Oct 23, 2009 - 8:11 am 207. johnt:

About time the real questions of stupidity and gross incompetence have been raised. For too long liberals in general, and this hapless crowd of fools in particular, have been treated as savants, when in fact they couldn’t manage their way out of a broom closet.

Who assists them in this myth ? The media, some of the narrowest, blindest, dumbest people in America. Why ? Because the bulk of the media are in love with government power.
The vaunted campaign of Obama received a huge assist from this supportive bunch, otherwise the holes, gaps, evasions, and emptiness would have been exposed and The O back in the Senate being what he is, the emptiest of empty suits.

The brilliant “strategist” Rahm Emanuel, a pathetic joke, a world class fool.

Oct 23, 2009 - 8:39 am 208. Bilgeman:

#205:
“Whoah there Tiger! I’m on your side. ”

I realize that. Sorry if I gave the wrong impression when I was rhetorically ranting at the Flim-Flam Man in Chief.

I should have put “quotes” around it.

Oct 23, 2009 - 8:45 am 209. Thomas_L......:

Bilgeman – De nada. I just wasn’t quite sure where you were going with that.

Oct 23, 2009 - 8:56 am 210. Maurice:

John T:
They come from pampered “can’t-do-anything-wrong” homes, into the arms of “done-nothing” propagandist professors, on to abstract “policy” jobs, and finally into the joyful wasteland of our no-accountability federal government. This is why we need actual real-life citizens running our government.

Oct 23, 2009 - 9:00 am 211. Paradox:

This is just my ancedotal information, but my experiences seem to be contradict the talk from certain posters here that educated people back Obama and his policies. My experience on the engineering side of the automotive industry has found most of my colleagues & customer engineers, mostly BSME’s and some MSME’s, to oppose the direction and policies of this administration. I am aware of several people who did vote for Obama and now regret that decision. The only person I know who is close to an outspoken Obama supporter is a UW Madison grad who has been spouting socialist diatribes for years, and now even he is starting to have difficulty defending some of this administration’s policies. FWIW

Oct 23, 2009 - 9:19 am 212. james:

Only liberals think liberals are smart. Normal people know them as the stupidest people in the room. But there is no point in arguing with them about this or anything else. We must attack, defeat, dismantle. Then we can argue. Peace through dominance.
Forget trying to deal with them as if they’re just like you only different. They ain’t.

Oct 23, 2009 - 9:51 am 213. Real Deal:

All the socialized medicine in the world won’t cure stupid, the sad part is that so many of these self-proclaimed “intelligent people” spent someone’s money to get indoctrinated. So basically they paid to become even more stupid, but at least now they have their pre-programmed talking points. “It’s Bush’s fault” & “You’re a racist!”

I’m just glad that when I went to school things hadn’t gotten as bad as they are today, then again I didn’t pursue a degree based on some sort of “Studies” either.

Oct 23, 2009 - 10:46 am 214. Peter the Bubblehead:

180. Stevemmn wrote:
It will be a whole different ballgame when 2012 comes around and he has to defend the disaster that he has created.

Peter writes: I predict that in 2012, there will still be elements of the Dinosaur Media claiming “It’s Bush’s Fault!” And I don’t expect to stop hearing it coming from the current administration any time soon either.

Oct 23, 2009 - 10:58 am 215. Gringo:

For those who claim that Obama supporters are so much brighter than those benighted souls who do not support him, I suggest the following research project, which I as a brain-dead knuckle-dragging evil right winger did last year.

I asked myself: how does Obama’s experience in various posts compare to Presidents who were also US Senators? I used various USG sites and Wikipedia. For non-controversial topics like this, Wikipedia is fairly, though not completely, reliable. For lack of space, I will not document: I used around 20 links. If anyone can prove me wrong, please do so.

I used the following metrics for Presidents who had been US Senators.
US House of Representatives experience
US Vice President experience
US Cabinet experience
Governor experience
Military experience.

There was one President who had been a US Senator who had none of the above experience: Warren Harding.
That metric also describes President Obama.

I now ask those who were so much brighter than us brain-dead Rethuglicans: why did you not do a similar investigation yourselves? If you had, why did you decide that comparison with Warren Harding was something to ignore? It’s not as if Warren Harding has been a highly regarded President.

Just wondering.

Oct 23, 2009 - 11:24 am 216. Delia:

While I think it’s an important part of learning that we are schooled in other people’s works.

Ya still hafta admit, it’s the people who create stuff that are the smart ones. Us lowly hopefuls are merely being ’schooled’ by the people who didn’t need to be ’schooled’ by someone else’s intellect to be intelligent.

Ahhhhhhhh what a conundrum.

Oct 23, 2009 - 12:54 pm 217. Thomas_L......:

Good points Gringo! They have no response, though, because they are trolling for Soros. Best to make fun of them instead of engaging them seriously. Might as well bang your head against a wall as expect rational dialogue.

Oct 23, 2009 - 1:29 pm 218. Julius Stahl:

“There is no God but Rahm, and Obama is his prophet.”

IMO this is about the only thing that explains the stupidity emanating from the WH.

Oct 23, 2009 - 2:08 pm 219. Ted:

Nobel gave them the IMMUNITY IDOL, so we can’t vote them off this week.

Oct 23, 2009 - 3:12 pm 220. myth buster:

The question about that “upharsin” bit is what exactly is going to be divided?

Oct 23, 2009 - 4:20 pm 221. steveg:

This has been going on for as long as I can remember. A liberal professor being interviewed by Larry Kudlow after the election said “Obama has the highest IQ of any president”. And then Kudlow asked the professor, “what is his IQ”, and the professor stated, “I don’t know”.

And lets not forget Bill Clinton calling his wife a ‘world class genius’ during the election cycle. These people are all arrogant, smug, and have no use for ordinary americans.

Oct 23, 2009 - 4:44 pm 222. Old Airman 2000:

I don’t think the people in this administration and Congress are dumb. I think they know exactly what they are doing. They are willing to throw away their majority in the next several elections to push through a hugely socialistic program that will be virtually impossible to dismantle once it is established. The worry for me is will the new majority that is likely to be voted in have the will to tear it down and return our liberty to us? I am afraid what will happen is we will end up having the “conservatives” just relent and promise to run the socialist system better than the liberals. We may as well just have one party after that. The europeanization of America. The Founders will roll over in their graves, if they are not already!

Oct 23, 2009 - 5:27 pm 223. Dinocrat » Blog Archive » The media begin to notice, at least for a moment:

[...] that the senior editorial staffs some of these organizations may be getting uncomfortable at the evident ineptitude of the administration in such ham-fisted attempts at intimidation. And of course there’s the additional fact that [...]

Oct 23, 2009 - 5:33 pm 224. Delia:

219. Ted:

“Nobel gave them the IMMUNITY IDOL, so we can’t vote them off this week.”

LMFAO! That’s a gem right that thar.

Oct 23, 2009 - 5:53 pm 225. Neo:

Who’d a thunk it that Obama would be a paranoid narcissist ?

OK, narcissist yes, but virtually nothing would have made you think he would opt for the bunker mentality now on display. I know I thought his passing up the FoxNews primary debate in Las Vegas was more pandering to the paranoid masses rather than an early indicator of his own paranoia of FoxNews, which now has festered into something pathological.

Apparently, that story of the auto czar invoking the “Madman theory of the Presidency” on the Chrysler bond holders wasn’t just the auto czar talking talking through his hat, but in fact was the real truth.

Oct 23, 2009 - 8:38 pm 226. Brian Richard Allen:

“” Are the (Obamorrhoids) as dumb as they seem? “”

No.

Rotten from the Hitler’s-little-server-Soros and any-other-Svengali-steered coked-out marijuana-mumbling Mussolini-modeled modified-Marxist murtadd-Muslim mothers-boy-like empty-galabiyah glove-puppet on down (up??) — they’re way dumber than that!

Oct 24, 2009 - 12:01 am 227. Exguru:

None of the comments about Mao and Ms. Dunn seem to mention the great leader’s harem, which I think included a very sick interest in children. His sex life was just revealed in a book about five years ago.

Oct 24, 2009 - 2:24 am 228. Delia:

226. Brian Richard Allen,

You put Peter Piper and his peck of pickled peppers to shame!

227. Exguru,

??????

Oct 24, 2009 - 9:36 am 229. Older than dirt:

Can someone explain to me why you would argue with the brain dead like biblio44? Why dignify him with a response? Ignore him he will go away.

Oct 24, 2009 - 7:12 pm 230. SamHenry:

Well, since weekend press and other releases are the best idea, Ms Dunn sure missed the mark mentioning mao on a Thursday! See my blog:

Future for Old Farts? The Elderly Under Obamacare – Political Funnies for October 25, 2009

https://samandimp.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=1139&message=1

Oct 25, 2009 - 11:08 am 231. Andy Barnes:

When does the housecleaning start? By President Obama’s standards, his house is clean. Scary thought?

Oct 25, 2009 - 7:52 pm 232. Peter the Bubblehead:

229. Older than dirt wrote:
Can someone explain to me why you would argue with the brain dead like biblio44? Why dignify him with a response? Ignore him he will go away.

Peter writes: Actually, it’s been pretty well proven he/she/it won’t go away. Just ignore him/her/it anyway.

Oct 26, 2009 - 5:24 am 233. Now and Then:

232. Peter the Bubblehead:

Ignore who?

Oct 26, 2009 - 5:47 am 234. len hrica:

dumber…….uva65

Oct 26, 2009 - 1:45 pm 235. halloweenpartysnacks » Blog Archive » Roger L. Simon » Are the Obamanoids As Dumb As They Seem?:

[...] David S .- Good luck trying to find a nuclear engineer who falls for the BS put out by this administration. You may be able to convince a nuclear engineer of global warming; after all, it is in a nuclear engineer’s best interest to tax fossil fuels ….. Leftists want to do as little work as possible and spend other’s hard earned money to grease their own wheels whilst taking ‘cred’ for being supposed ‘heroes’ whilst the elitists in the background are pocketing the gravy. …More [...]

Nov 22, 2009 - 4:18 am

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