From NRO’s The Corner:

To be more precise, the iconic Obama HOPE poster/T-shirt was, as the AP charged, created by an artist who stole a copyrighted AP photo image. The case has gone on as long as it did because Shepard Fairey, the artist, lied about which photo he used for the picture, and destroyed the evidence. His pro-bono attorneys, who are members of Stanford Law School’s “Fair Use” project, dropped the case when it became clear that it was based on a fabric of lies. (Honest lawyer alert!)

Sorry be this obvious, and hit NRO readers over the head with such a big, fat, ripe metaphor, but there you are: Hope based on lies and theft — the Obama political brand in a nutshell.

And that is the truth – never in the course of human events has a government been based on quite so much mythology as Obama’s Administration. That, in fact, he’s pretty much a zero who lucked out is hidden under a blizzard fabrications and Hollywood hype – as I said a while back ago, Obama won because he was, in 2008, the “Unknown Democrat” who always polls better than the known GOPer. His handlers managed to keep the truth about Obama under wraps until he was safely elected – dodging a series of revelations which would have been career-ending, save for the fact that Obama had the most glowing, sycophantic press seen this side of a totalitarian dictatorship.

But the truth is coming out, now, and thus it is somehow very appropriate that the iconic poster is shown to be based on lies and theft…

Mark Steyn notes something we’ve seen here and everywhere – the assertion that, some how, Rush, Beck et al are just doing what they do for a paycheck and can’t really believe their own statements:

Our old friend David Frum has been doing his best for moderate conservatism with a broader appeal – the so-called “big tent”. If the tent seems bigger, that’s because he’s kicking so many people out of it. Each to his own. But his latest offering is unworthy of him – “Do Limbaugh And Beck Believe What They Say?”

Yes of course Limbaugh and Beck express the same views in private as in public. Consistent hypocrisy demands exorbitant levels of imagination, energy, and cynicism. Much less exhausting over time simply to bring your private views into alignment with what you are paid to say in public.

“What you are paid to say in public”? By whom? Rush and Glenn are both self-owned brands who license themselves to multiple clients in radio, TV, publishing, etc.

The assumption of bad faith is the first refuge of the lazy leftist: “Why, my position is so obviously the only rational one that yours can only be an act! You cannot possibly believe what you say about climate change/health care/Islamic terrorism! Clearly it can only be explained by the check from your puppetmaster!” Sad to see David Frum buying into this:

Suppose an agent arrived in the offices of Limbaugh/Beck/Hannity/O’Reilly etc. with an offer. “I can guarantee you a deal that will pay you twice as much – bring you twice as much fame – and extend your career twice as long – if you’d say the exact opposite of what you are saying now.” Which of them would sign?

My nominations: O’Reilly accepts for sure. Beck likewise almost certainly says yes…

Most of the big-time talkers have been entirely consistent in their political views since their first gig babbling away for 200 bucks a week on WZZZ-AM at two in the morning. By contrast, there would seem to be more discernible evolution in political outlook among, say, certain long-time writers for the conservative press who then find themselves offered a weekly column in The New York Times.

If Matt and I wanted to make a quick buck, all we’d have to do is – over a few month period – slowly shift our blogging to support for Obama and the left. All of a sudden we wouldn’t be hate-mongers shilling for Corporate America…we’d be wise, genuine conservatives whom the rest of the GOP should emulate. All we’d have to do to get this is lie – just pretend we’re coming ’round, and the left would start writing us checks out of one of Soros’ many accounts. But, we don’t – because we believe what we write. And Rush, etc believe what they say.

We don’t do this for money – we do it because we love it; we love America – we love defending America, and we love defending conservative ideals because they are the foundation stones of the America we love. Rush and Beck have found a way to do what they love and get paid a lot of money at the same time – I’d love to do that, too. But if I never make a dime at it, I’ll still keep plugging away, defending my views until the day I die. There isn’t enough money in the world to get me to alter my views for pay – because it profits a man nothing to gain the whole world, and yet lose his soul.

So, liberals, no: we’re not kidding. This is what we really believe. We believe in God, faith, family, country – we’re fighting for what we believe in and this means that we believe you are wrong. That with your whole force of MSM, entertainment, government and leftist pressure groups, you still haven’t convinced us. We believe you are pinheads who couldn’t find the balls on bull if given three chances at it. So, no, don’t expect us to ever stop – we’re going to keep coming right at you, until we’ve vanquished you for good.

Earl Henry Sholley – his website.

Now, Sholley probably has one of the hardest tasks imaginable – getting rid of a corrupt, entrenched Democrat in a very Democratic district. He’ll need a lot of help. So, what are you waiting for? Help out.

Victor Davis Hanson goes down the list of modern “culture” and why he’s no longer interested – and concludes, in part:

…As I have dropped out of contemporary American culture and retreated inside some sort of 1950s time-warp, in a strange fashion of compensation for non-participation , I have tried to remain more engaged than ever in the country’s political and military crises, which are acute and growing. One’s distancing from the popular culture of movies, TV, newspapers, and establishment culture makes one perhaps wish to overcompensate in other directions, from the trivial to the important.

Lately more than ever I try to obey the speed limit, overpay my taxes, pay more estimates and withholding than I need, pay all the property taxes at once, pick up trash I see on the sidewalk, try to be overly polite to strangers in line, always stop on the freeway when I see an elderly person or single woman with a flat, leave 20% tips, let cars cut me off in the parking lot (not in my youth, not for a second), and patronize as many of Selma’s small businesses as I can (from the hardware store to insurance to cars). I don’t necessarily do that out of any sense of personal ethics, but rather because in these increasingly crass and lawless times, we all have to try something, even symbolically, to restore some common thread to the frayed veneer of American civilization, to balance the rips from a Letterman attack on Palin’s 14-year-old daughter or a Serena Williams’s threat to a line judge, or the President’s communication director’s praise of Mao, civilization’s most lethal mass murderer, or all of what I described above.

I don’t fathom the attraction of a Kanye West (I know that name after his outburst), a David Letterman, Van Jones, Michael Moore (all parasitic on the very culture they mock), or the New York Review of Books or People Magazine (they seem about the same in their world view). So goodbye to all that…

Yeah, I’m like that, too. It started for me, in a serious way, when I returned to Christianity. As I go through the grocery store check out and see the tabloid headlines about celebrity scandal, I often haven’t the foggiest notion of who’s on the front page. I do still watch my Chargers, but after the way the NFL has treated Rush, I’m a lot less enthused than I used to be – meanwhile, baseball and basketball are not on my agenda. As for popular music – I’ve gone way past retreating to the music of my youth: often its Mozart or Bach on the CD player, and thank God for their talents! Movies are usually horrible, in my view: either too much sex or too much violence or too much phony, liberal preaching.

Additionally, I do find myself not speeding, giving larger tips, being more willing to help and be patient…and as I read that from Hanson, I guess I got the same feeling he did when he was thinking it over: aren’t there more and more like this, all the time? Have any of you withdrawn from our nauseating culture and re-connected with civilization? To me, a lie has become a horror, the merest hint of marital infidelity a hideous crime, the smallest malfeasance cause for grave soul-searching, the least manifestation of impatience with others a monstrous cruelty. Why on earth would anyone do such things? I can’t watch people destroy themselves and giggle about it – I’m sure they giggled in Rome about how the gladiators died, or about the latest scandal out of the Imperial Palace…people sick in their souls, degraded by a depraved culture.

Life is too serious for anyone to pay attention to pop-culture. Life is also too fun to be bogged down in the voyeurism and scandal-mongering which is the grist for our pop-culture mill. So, yes, indeed – goodbye to all that.

Video of Karl Rove on Obama and his “Enemies List” and Chicago style politics.

Its a really bad Administration we’ve got here, boys and girls…all that is missing is the paranoia, and that is lurking just below the surface.

Interesting, to say the least:

White House military and defense advisers will meet again this and next week to discuss a proposed troop increase for Afghanistan, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Sunday…

…”We would love the luxury of this debate to be reduced down to just one question — additional troops, 40,000,” Emanuel told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “This is a much more complex decision.”

“The question, though… does not come [down to] how many troops you send, but do you have a credible Afghan partner for this process that can provide the security and the type of services that the Afghan people need?” the chief of staff added. (emphasis added)

The issue here being the very credible stories of voter fraud in the recent Afghan Presidential election. What Emanuel is saying – or, at least, what he’s running up the flag pole – is the concept that while Obama would like very much to provide the requested military reinforcements, since there is questions about the government’s legitimacy, we simply can’t do it though we’ll continue to work with Afghan leaders to bring about a peaceful resolution and let no one think this means we’re giving up on al Qaeda as the full power of American law enforcement will be mobilized to bring them to justice, if we can get an indictment… Its a soft scuttle – a pretense that our hands are tied and we’re doing as much as we can, and its too bad that the Taliban are back in Kabul. If this goes through, I’ll expect that the CIA will suddenly decide that bin Laden died in the Tora Bora in 2001, thus getting Obama off the hook for that, too.

This sort of cowardly dodge is being seconded – most notably by Sen. John “I was in Cambodia” Kerry. Make no mistake about it, the Powers That Be in the Democrat leadership are looking for a way out of Afghanistan which doesn’t too badly damage their national security credentials. They might not be able to finesse this and end up forced to send the troops, but the preferred option does seem to be to get out – and get out far enough in advance of the 2012 elections that, hopefully, the American people will not care about it when voting time arrives.

The truth of the matter is that the Afghan government is horribly flawed – but we’re not there for the Afghan government, but for the people of Afghanistan, and the people of the world. Certainly, we must help the Afghan government overcome corruption and build a credible military force, but our moral responsibility is to the safety and liberty of the Afghan people, not to whomever happens to be running the show in Kabul. If we fail in this – if we use the excuse of government corruption to justify abandonment of the Afghan people – then we will have placed a mark of shame on our nation second only to that we acquired when we abandoned South Vietnam.

For crying out loud:

‘Green’ Customers Get Discounts at Berlin Brothel

One bordello, hoping to stave off falling demand in the economic crisis, has begun offering discounts to customers who pedal bicycles to the door.

“It’s very difficult to find parking around here, and this option is better for our environment,” said Thomas Goetz, who owns the brothel Maison d’Envie, or House of Desire.

Local residents in Prenzlauer Berg – a part of former East Berlin now home to scores of trendy boutiques, restaurants and clubs – had staunchly supported the Green party in recent elections and have welcomed the bordello’s offer to emphasize the environment.

Ruthless exploitation of human beings for the gratification of rich men – good.

Not being “green” – bad.

We’re insane – we really are. A dying civilization – fortunately, it is the “post-Christian” civilization which is dying. Once its gone, we’ll argue with Islam over the remains of a dead Europe – and the parts we keep will once again be Christian…and so we won’t have stories about whore houses going “green”.

He’s running for governor out here in Nevada:

The son of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has formally entered the Democratic race for Nevada governor, saying the state needs to diversify its economy and stop postponing difficult decisions.

Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid said Wednesday he doesn’t think his father will have a big effect on his campaign to become the state’s top executive. He says Nevadans ask him about issues, not his father.

He says Nevada has become too reliant on the gambling industry and needs a more diverse economy to pull out of the recession.

Which is true, and credit to Rory for seeing that – but with dear, old Dad having been in the Senate all this time, you’d think we’d have a bit of that economic diversity, already. Is Rory going to point out what his Dad failed to do, and how he’ll do it better? Or will the son claim that the father has done everything he can, but we’re still screwed? Either way, it doesn’t work out well for either Reid.

Outside of that, there is something distinctly un-American in all this – its one thing for a son to follow a father in to politics, quite another when father and son are attempting to obtain high office at the same time. If Harry wanted his son to be governor, he should have refused to seek re-election. I think, in the end, that having two Reid’s on the ballot will just help convince the voters of Nevada that we should have no Reids, in office.

UPDATE: Naturally, given he’s a Democrat, his platform conflicts with the State Constitution...when this is pointed out, Reid’s determination is to find a way around that august document…like father, like son…

Took a while:

Begun as a loosely affiliated groundswell of Constitution-waving protesters in tri-cornered hats, the Tea Party movement is now starting to rock the political establishment in key arenas.

The growing numbers of Americans coming out to the Tax Day Tea Party, the Fourth of July Tea Parties, and then the 9/12 Tea Party march on Washington are going back to their home districts and keeping up — even intensifying — the fight for smaller government and more transparency on spending and taxation.

In places like New York, Florida, California, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, local, state, congressional, and gubernatorial seats are suddenly being tugged to-and-fro by the new and unruly political force.

The upshot?

The street energy is welcome for an otherwise moribund Republican party looking for new moorings amid a tumultuous electorate.

The downside is that early examples shows that, in the short run, Tea Party-sponsored candidates could make it more difficult for Republicans as they — Ross Perot-like — split races as they target both “tax and spend” Democrats and those they like to call RINOs, or “Republicans-in-name-only.”

There will be a few Democrats out there who catch on and realize that a pledge against taxes and for a balanced budget will bring them TEA Party support against any RINO who happens to garner a GOP nomination next year. There will be a lot more Republicans who figure this out. But there will be enough GOPers (and a vast number of Democrats) to remain clueless to make 2010 an interesting and impossible to predict year. I was figuring on a 30 seat GOP House gain – now, I haven’t a clue. Who knows whom the TEA Party will propel to the polls? I figure the GOP will still gain seats (more Democrats on the chopping block, mid-term of a new Presidency, economy shaky, etc), but my prediction now is an absurd 1 to 100…and 1 to 10 Senate Seats.

While some in the establishment wring their hands and worry that these TEA Partiers – who lack proper, professional, elite leadership – simply won’t know that they are not smart enough to influence politics, I’m delighted with it. It’ll be one heck of a rollicking, seat-of-the-pants political year…and we’ll be changed as a nation, after it.

Wonderful stuff:

The Rev. Al Sharpton is threatening to sue Rush Limbaugh for writing that the civil rights leader played a role in two New York race riots.

Limbaugh wrote that Sharpton played “a leading role in the 1991 Crown Heights riot” and the “1995 Freddie’s Fashion Mart riot” in a Wall Street Journal column published Saturday. Sharpton called both allegations false.

That a race-baiting slanderer like Sharpton would dare accuse someone of slandering him is just to outrageous for words…but, it keeps the issue alive, keeps Sharpton in the public eye (and that helps the GOP immensely) and will just increase El Rushbo’s ratings…so, its all good.