Don’t agree with their views, but I always admire people who take a stand for what they believe:

Two prominent gay figures, activist David Mixner and widely read blogger Andy Towle, have pulled out of a Democratic National Committee fundraiser later this month amid growing calls to confront the administration at what was supposed to be its first large scale opportunity to bring in gay cash.

“I will not attend a fundraiser for the National Democratic Party in Washington next week when the current administration is responsible for these kind of actions,” Mixner wrote of a motion to dismiss a challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act that drew a parallel between same-sex marriage to incestuous marriage. “How will they ever take us seriously if we keep forking out money while they harm us. For now on, my money is going to battles within the community such as the fight in Maine or the March on Washington! I am so tired of being told by Democratic operatives to ‘suck it up’ because so many other profound issues are at stake,” Mixner wrote.

“I’ve had concerns about the lack of movement from the administration on LGBT issues for some time now but I wasn’t comfortable attending after that DOMA brief came out,” Towle, who writes the widely read Towle Road blog, said in an e-mail.

Now, some might say these men are causing division and trying to push the party to extremes – much as people claim that religious conservatives are doing in the GOP. But that is not the case. What is happening here is that the rank-and-file are getting ticked off at pouring out their money and sweat and getting shafted by the people who claim to champion their cause. I’m seeing a refreshing lot of this of late – more on the right than on the left, but all part of a general trend towards a “people vs powerful” political dynamic.

I want us to have it out – to hold a left/right political debate and then cast ballots and see just what sort of America the majority wants to have. No more shadow-boxing and focus-group-tested rhetoric designed to obscure positions and offend as few as possible. Lets all get out there and rub people the wrong way – get them thinking, get them talking. I don’t want to win because I’m not the other guy – I want to win because my side has convinced a majority that the conservative viewpoint is correct. That way, with victory, will come a genuine mandate to make deep and fundamental changes in the way our government operates. And if a strand-up fight between left and right results in a left wing victory, then so be it – I’m not about to tell my fellow Americans they can’t choose folly, if they so desire…but I don’t want folly sneaking in to power by pretending to be moderate.

For crying out loud:

The first “anti-stab” knife is to go on sale in Britain, designed to work as normal in the kitchen but to be ineffective as a weapon.

The knife has a rounded edge instead of a point and will snag on clothing and skin to make it more difficult to stab someone.

It was invented by industrial designer John Cornock, who was inspired by a documentary in which doctors advocated banning traditional knives.

Mr Cornock, 42, from Swindon, said that the knife will cut vegetables, but will make it almost impossible to stab someone to death and will reduce the risk of accidental injuries.

He said: “It can never be a totally safe knife, but the idea is you can’t inflict a fatal wound. Nobody could just grab one out of the kitchen drawer and kill someone.”

Frank J over at IMAO has some trenchant comments on this:

REASONS THIS IS STUPID

* Someone who is going to stab people isn’t going to buy a stab-proof knife.

* There are so many regular knives available, that getting a regular knife will always be trivial.

* But, if all regular knives are somehow banished through a magic spell, you can just take a stab-proof knife and sharpen a tip against a rock.

* Or sharpen a screwdriver.

* And it’s not like someone is going to stop being a thug because his current implement his hard to stab with.

* Thought maybe he will get so frustrated he’ll just shoot you with his illegally possessed gun.

* Finally, really? A stab-proof knife? Can’t you still cut off your testicles with it since none of you limeys seem to need them?

Whats next? Knife control legislation? Brits have already ensured that only criminals and police will have guns, are they next going to make sure that you can’t even stab the rapist/robber invading your home? The wimpification of western civilization is just going too far…and even with the stab proof knife, the Islamists will be able to behead these gutless men who are afraid of having pointy things around the house…

• GOP Foot Soldiers Leading Conservative Uprising http://tinyurl.com/ntj4w7 #
• Chastity Bono http://tinyurl.com/kw7wup #
• Letterman’s Apology http://tinyurl.com/njx3w5 #
• Phrase of the Day http://tinyurl.com/lodqvv #
• 51% of Americans Smarter Than Obama http://tinyurl.com/lox36s #
• Firing David Letterman: The WRONG Thing To Do http://tinyurl.com/mwjy44 #
• What Happened To A New Era of Openness and Transparency? http://tinyurl.com/m3f5cp #
• What Media Bias? Part 150 http://tinyurl.com/nrg547 #
• Building the USS Gerald R Ford (CVN-78) http://tinyurl.com/l2yoqx #
• Politico Suprised That Spendulus Winds up as Pork http://tinyurl.com/lzsltl #

The story:

It became a sort of poster child for fiscal responsibility — a clean-coal power plant in Illinois that was one of then-Sen. Barack Obama’s pet projects.

Democrats insisted they were so serious about keeping pork out of the stimulus bill that it was President Obama himself who blocked the FutureGen project from the massive spending package.

“It shows that we’re serious about it,” Brendan Daly, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s spokesman, said at the time. “The speaker said it, and the president said it: There will not be earmarks in this bill.”

Earmarks? Perhaps not. But funding for FutureGen? Absolutely, to the tune of $1 billion.

What I noted on passage of the Spendulus:

…In the end, of course, no one knows what is in the bill – not really; it will end up being some low-level bureaucrats and Administration officials who will really decide how the money is spent, and they’ll spend it with a mind towards their future prospects for advancement. The only thing we can be sure about is that a lot of money will be spent…

So, what we have here is proof that no one knew or knows what is in the bill and thus whomever has pull can find whatever he wishes in it…including Obama allowing pork spending on something he said he wouldn’t allow pork spending on. You liberals signed on for this BS and you were warned – we told you that you were being taken for a ride and that the Powers That Be were merely using the financial crisis to feather their nests and reward their friends. But, no, you had to think that The One was different…you utter fools! He’s from Chicago, for crying out loud – name me the honest politician who has ever come out of there.

You don’t have to be an intrepid reporter – all you have to know is the nature liberal Democrats; given this, we can be certain that the money will be spent in a manner which liberal Democrats believe best serves their immediate political needs. It doesn’t matter what they say, doesn’t matter what the law says – nothing matters to liberal Democratic leaders other than winning and retaining power. I knew this sort of thing was going to happen, I said it would happen, and its happened – and it will keep happening until GOPers gain authority to start investigations.

And this time, boys and girls, no holding back – we get the power, we should start sending crooks to jail.

Way cool stuff for science geeks and sailors young and old.

Anyone who attempts to deny the subservience of the MSM to Obama after this is a knave or a fool:

On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care — a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm!

Highlights on the agenda:

ABCNEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House.

The network plans a primetime special — ‘Prescription for America’ — originating from the East Room, exclude opposing voices on the debate.

It doesn’t really matter – only the Obamaniacs will watch, and they’ll swallow whatever The One shoves at them…but as an example of just how devoted the MSM is to Obama, there’s nothing better…and no chance anyone will ever be able to rationally deny MSM bias any longer.

Obama once promised “a new era of openness in our country,” declaring “transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

So, please… someone explain how this is open and transparent? 

Despite President Barack Obama’s pledge to introduce a new era of transparency to Washington, and despite two rulings by a federal judge that the records are public, the Secret Service has denied msnbc.com’s request for the names of all White House visitors from Jan. 20 to the present. It also denied a narrower request by the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sought logs of visits by executives of coal companies.

Or perhaps Obama can explain how when Bush and other presidents withheld such information it was secretive, but when he does it is “open” and “transparent”?

Obama campaigned on change… but what kind of change is it when you promise transparency and completely go back on your promises? This is hardly an isolated incident… Obama has been criticized plenty for failing to make good on his promises of transparency. Sadly, there are too many people who give Obama pass after pass despite the utter failure that has been his tenure in office.

Because of David Letterman’s moronic, imbecilic jokes about Sarah Palin’s 14-year old daughter, there are those who want to use the opportunity to get Letterman fired.

This is where I part ways with many of my conservative brethren.

Is what Letterman said about Palin’s 14-year old daughter getting “knocked up” by Alex Rodrieguez an abominable statement in poor taste?

Absolutely.

Does David Letterman deserve to be criticized for his gross indiscretion?

You bet.

Part of the consequences of speaking your mind in a free society is opening yourself up for criticism for what you say.

But when we, as conservatives, travel down the road of the gallows for what a leftist says, we are no better than those who take that same path as a means to silence their critics without bothering to take the time nor the energy to engage those critics on the basis of their ideas.

Especially when those on the left have nothing to offer to bolster their own arguments.

Criticize Letterman til the cow comes home. The fact that he made that joke about a young teenager getting “knocked up” by an adult is enough ammunition to figuratively poke holes in Letterman til the hole between his teeth cannot be discerned from the rest of his sorry persona that resembles a putrid hunk of swiss cheese.

Awareness of Letterman’s crass behavior will lose him viewers, causing his show to wither on the vine naturally, resulting in a slow, painful death, a death caused by the changing and awakening of people’s hearts and minds. Our cause will be won in the marketplace of ideas, which will manifest itself in the free market system.

And that, my friends, is how to chalk one up for the conservative cause.

We do the conservative cause nor the advancement of our principles no favors when we adopt the thug tactics of the other side.

No hearts nor minds are changed.

All that is left is a pile of smoldering manure punctuated by a “Gotcha!”

The conservative cause is advanced in and is summarily successful in the arena of ideas.

For the sake of the cause and our priniciples, let’s not lower the bar.

And 59% of non-Democrats:

Fifty-one percent (51%) of Americans favor an across-the-board tax cut for all Americans to stimulate the U.S. economy, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Thirty-four percent (34%) oppose such a tax cut, and 15% are undecided.

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of both Republicans and adults not affiliated with either major political party think an across-the-board tax cut is a good idea. Democrats are fairly evenly divided on the wisdom of such a tax cut.

During Election 2008, then-candidate Obama promised to cut taxes for 95% of all Americans. So far, just 26% of adults believe President Obama has delivered on that promise. Forty-three percent (43%) say he has not and 31% are not sure.

Democrats are more likely than others to believe the President has delivered on the tax cut promise.

And that last would be because Democrats, on the whole, are likely to be even dumber than Obama. More importantly, we’re starting to see indicators that a supply-side, tax-cutting program will resonate well with voters in 2010 and 2012. Just takes a bit of warmed-over Carterism to bring America back to its senses, it would seem.

Where to go when life gets you down:

I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. – St. Augustine