Brit reporter gets it half right on the Tucson shooting

Jarod Loughner - creepy, accused Tucson assassin

It’s always interesting to read foreign press observations of America. To be frank, the reporters obviously never leave New York City or Washington, DC because their take on most Americans and most of America is usually wrong. Therefore, they usually mislead their readers and I’m sure it’s not intentional but because they are living in the hotbed of liberalism, the information they get is liberally tainted.

Tonight I was reading an article in the Daily Mail by Tom Leonard about the shooting in Tucson and some of his information is just flat out wrong. Case in point: Gabrielle Giffords was a Democrat and much – but not all – of the badly spelt, incoherent YouTube jumble that passed for the politics of her attacker was broadly ‘Right-wing’.

As has been widely reported by now, there is absolutely no evidence that this nutcase had ‘right-wing’ leanings and in fact, there is plenty of evidence that he really is a dyed in the wool nutcase. We’ve all heard and read about Jarod Loughner’s favorite reading list (The Communist Manifesto) and his wickedly weird tented backyard shrine. It’s now being reported that he was a registered Independent.

Leonard goes on to say that the rush to make political capital out of a mass shooting shows just how nasty U.S. ­politics has become. But he fails to point out exactly who was making political capital out of this. Liberal jackass Paul Krugman, in less than 3 hours after the shooting, was one of the first out of the box to tweet the blame on the TEA party and Conservatives.  Since then, it’s been a parade of liberals from Jane Fonda to this Sheriff Dickhead of Pima County, who have been blaming it all on Conservatives, Fox News, Sarah Palin, et al, ad nauseum. ( I love using latin that I actually know. HA!)

As the name (a reference to the 1773 Boston Tea Party) implies, Tea Party supporters see their movement as rooted in the rebellion against George III, and the language has ­inevitably been full of ­military metaphor. Again, I don’t know where Mr. Leonard gets his information but exactly what “military metaphor” is he talking about? Don’t Tread on Me, perhaps?  Taxed Enough Already, maybe? He’s clueless on this topic and needs to stop reporting on it until he gets himself educated on what the TEA party really stands for.

American political rhetoric, on both sides of the spectrum, has always been a bit militaristic. The use of the words “battleground states”, for instance. But this is not new because of the TEA party.

Yes, it was rooted in rebellion. Take note of Rick Santelli, the father of the TEA party:

In the fractious lead-up to last November’s congressional mid-term elections – which saw a major victory for the Right – there were scuffles outside town halls, occasional brandishing of firearms at ­rallies and reports of rising membership of armed militias, ‘weekend warriors’ training for the day they believe will come when they will have to defend the U.S. Constitution. Did I  miss all this news last November? Who were all these people with guns and what militia is he talking about? Where did he get all this information that the rest of us honest to God Americans,  has been left out of knowing about? But don’t blame the Brits, they just can’t resist the caricature of Americans as wild west cowboys, all brandishing guns.

I think that Mr. Leonard is pretty fair to Sarah Palin but he failed to site any controversial liberal behaviors that are similar or worse than any seen on the right. For instance, he never quoted Obama extoling his audience that “if they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun” or calling Republicans “hostage takers” and the “enemy” of Hispanic Americans.

Leonard does finish his article in a very fair handed way, though:

History shows how dangerous it is to try to second-guess the motives of political assassins.

John Hinckley shot Ronald Reagan because he was obsessed with the actress Jodie Foster, not because he hated Right-wingers.

Likewise, Lynette Fromme tried to shoot Gerald Ford because she revered the cult killer Charles Manson.

But those lessons from ­history won’t stop some Democrats exploiting the shooting of a nine-year-old girl and five others at the weekend with precisely the sort of foam-flecked over-reaction for which they love to condemn their opponents on the Right.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1345952/Arizona-shootings-How-Americas-elite-hijacked-massacre-revenge-Sarah-Palin.html#ixzz1AgyYASc

Banning Happy Meals. Need any more proof that these Californians are nuts?

From HotAir.com

My question is again: Why does anyone live or move to California? These people are just frankly out of their minds. But I want them to stay there, because when they start moving out, they bring their totally crazy politics with them. They have dramatically changed the demographics in Nevada politics in the last 25 years and not for the better.

What I have never understood is that they are leaving a state that controls every aspect of their lives and you’d think it’s because government controls every aspect of their lives and yet, they bring those same regulations right along with them and then impose them on their new states neighbors.

Gimme a break and go away or stay away!

Rick Perry said this morning on Fox that this year, over 150 businesses alone have moved to Texas from California. What don’t they get? California is running jobs out of their state with stupid rules and regulations and they keep doing it! It’s no wonder they are broke and jobless there.

Saving California is the biggest waste of money I can think of because it’s nothing more than throwing good money after bad – a little like what the Department of Education has been doing with our tax dollars for decades.

Now that they have banned Happy Meals, and re-elected Jerry Brown, Barbara Boxer et al, we need no further proof that they are all certifiable in that state (except for Jim and those few conservatives down in Orange County.) We need to keep them isolated in their own state asylum and away from doing any damage to the rest of us.

In light of this, you’re going to love this story from the UK Daily Mail (2008):

McDonald’s Happy Meals are to be banned in Liverpool over claims they are contributing to the epidemic of childhood obesity.

The city council is planning to outlaw the meals on the grounds that they are damaging the heath of children – particularly as they offer free toys in order to encourage parents to buy junk food for their children.

The Liberal Democrat-controlled authority claims the credit for taking the lead in the campaign that led to the ban on smoking in public places.

Members of Liverpool City Council’s Childhood Obesity Scrutiny Group (do you love this or what?) want a bye-law that would forbid the sale of fast foot accompanied by toys.

Councillors say the promotional items are used to boost sales through the “Pester Power” phenomenon – children pestering parents for Happy Meal toys. There isn’t a parent in all of Liverpool (and now none in San Fransisco) who has the willpower or the intelligence to say no to their children so the Councillors will do it for them.

…

Lib Dem councillor Paul Twigger said: “The Scrutiny Group (Good Lord, this is right out of Orwell’s 1984) is recommending that a bye-law be enforced to stop the circulation of free toys associated with junk food promotions.

“We consider it is high time that cash-hungry vultures like McDonald’s are challenged over their marketing policies which are directly aimed at promoting unhealthy eating among children. Attack any semblance of a free market and quash it and while you’re at it, depress job growth, too. That’s a great plan!

“Childhood obesity is a dire threat to the health in this country and it needs to be nipped in the bud urgently.

“Children are directly targeted with junk food and McDonald’s use the Happy Meals to exploit Pester Power of children against which many parents give in. Once again, parents are not capable of being parents so this is another attempt by the government to infantilize adults.

…
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-517955/Liverpool-set-ban-McDonalds-Happy-Meals-bid-cut-childhood-obesity.html#ixzz14KiuNkJX

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. C.S. Lewis

Quote of the Day – Jane fitness queen Fonda

It’s early and I might have to add another quote but this one just made me shake my head – the money part.

I’m careful about how I eat. I stay active. I walk a lot. I have good genes – and money.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1311542/Jane-Fonda-looks-amazing-72-new-workout-DVD-old-age-pensioners.html#ixzz0zQ3I8gfw

After admitting to plastic surgery, this doesn't even look like the Jane Fonda I remember. Maybe if she were in a helmet and a North Vietnamese tank. . .

Hey! Guess what! Barbie’s naked under that Burka!

I get reeeeally nasty when someone starts messing with Barbie. You might remember last spring when this Eldridge guy in West Virginia tried to ban Barbie sales in his state. It even made news in the UK.

I wrote him a snarky letter calling him out for the imbecile he is. I’m a taxpayer, a private citizen, a voter and a consumer so I can call folks like him out. The president on the other hand, should be presidential and not be calling out folks or doing shout-outs during a terrorist attack at an army post, for that matter.

As usual, I digress…  back to Barbie.

How dare someone do this to Barbie? Here’s the deal, some guy in this article says that all little girls should have the Barbie that best reflects her vision of womanhood… or something stupid like that.

Barbie is the original icon of Western culture. Why would any Islamist who detests the West and it’s decadent societies, allow their little girls to play with a Barbie in the first place? Even if she is dressed in a burka, she’s not the kind of doll any orthodox Muslim would be letting their little girl play with.

from The Daily Mail

As a huge Barbie fan, I”m offended. Barbie does not represent submission and inferiority of womanhood. She does not represent the invisiblity that Muslims designate their women to.

She is a stand up gal! And she’s American!

And futhermore, under that burka, Barbie’s naked!!!

Doing what he does best

It’s all about the votes.

Doing what he does best. (NYDailyNews)

The same states that Obama targeted to win the White House are seeing an awful lot of the president, Vice President Joe Biden and top Cabinet officials. Only this year, the taxpayers are footing the multimillion-dollar tab for the trips, and Obama officials are delivering wheelbarrows of economic stimulus money – also compliments of taxpayers.

An Associated Press review of administration travel records shows that three of every four official trips Obama and his key lieutenants made in his first seven months in office were to the 28 states Obama won. Add trips to Missouri and Montana – both of which Obama narrowly lost – and almost 80 percent of the administration’s official domestic travel has been concentrated in states likely to be key to Obama’s re-election effort in 2012.

Philip Elliot/AP

He has not governed, he has campaigned. From selling the stimulus package to his world apology tour to his failed bid at the Olympics, TheOne is doing what he knows best: campaigning.

If he were actually governing, he’d have to be at home in the oval office. Instead he’s flying all over – at taxpayer expense – to sell his Marxist agenda to crowds of adoring, fawning crowds. He’s yet to figure our that he’s preaching to his own choir and ignoring the ones who really do need to be won over (see his Fox Feud).  And he’s laying the groundwork for his re-election by pandering to and paying off those states that will be crucial to him in 2012.

Do you get this? He’s campaigning for 2012 on OUR DIME!

Now to be fair, I don’t know what President Bush did during his terms. And it would be interesting to be able to make a comparison. But I do know that this is not the candidate I wanted as president last year and he will not be the candidate of my choice in ’12, so I resent that my tax dollars are paying for this… and other things like flying a pizza chef into DC for lunch (even the UK Daily Mail did a story on that) or flying Oprah to Copenhagen at the taxpayer’s expense or a gratuitous fly-over of Manhattan that scared the crap out of thousands.

Notice how so much of his taxpayer use is for flying? I guess if I had an Air Force One parked in my yard, I’d want to play camping-out in it, too.  Eventually, I expect the novelty to wear off for the Obamas.

What’s most amazing in all this is that the AP is actually doing a story about it.