More video on You Tube about this wonderful expression of true American patriotism.

And Spankin’ Specter.

Getting more and more like it, every day:

The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation’s plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab.

The numbers could hardly be more stark: Tax receipts are on pace to drop 18 percent this year, the biggest single-year decline since the Great Depression, while the federal deficit balloons to a record $1.8 trillion.

And just where do you think Obama is going to get the money to pay not for this? Look in the mirror.

We may have had a worse time, but if we did, it was called the Great Depression:

…if the economy is about to begin growing again, it will be from a very low level. The recession has produced declines far greater than in previous downturns over the past half-century. As a result, the economy may seem to be depressed even after growth resumes.

One area where that can be seen is shipments of durable goods produced by American companies. The rate of such shipments fell by more than 20 percent during this recession, and would have declined further were it not for increased production of weapons.

In no previous downturn since 1958, when the figures began being recorded, had the decline been as much as 14 percent.

The drop is all the more remarkable because such shipments rose at a relatively restrained rate in the preceding period of economic growth, particularly when military sales were excluded.

We’re not making, mining and growing things – as I keep harping on like a broken record (hmmm…does anyone under 30 even understand the phrase “broken record”? Its terrible when you stop being hip). Anyways….

Do keep in mind that the linked report is from the New York Times. Mish’s has an excellent chart you can click on and see just how miserable it really is. The really bad news is that things got worse in the first quarter of 2009 as opposed to the first quarter of 2008. We’re not bottoming out or starting to rise – we’re still sliding down.

The sooner we all admit that we were suckered – for a century – on the notion of what makes wealth and start setting our minds on creating real wealth, the sooner we get out of this. If anyone is expecting Obama and various Ivy League-educated lawyers and money shufflers to fix the economy, he’s going to be waiting a very long time. It can’t be done – because it never could be done. We floated around on wealth we had built up over a century of hard work and tried to finesse things by moving money around…and it was all a waste of time. It is now time to get back to work.

Or, we can kneel before Obama and Hope and Change our way to nirvana…if you think that’s a good idea.

Its a neat trick, if you can pull it off – and it’ll work like a charm on liberals from Mark Steyn over at NRO:

What’s a columnist to do? It’s getting a little old to blame Bush for the horrors of the Bush presidency. So why not blame Bush for the horrors of the Obama presidency? As a sympathetic Jacob Weisberg sees it, the understandable urge to be the unBush has sent the Obama pendulum swinging way off the charts:

Obama, who did not have much global expertise before coming to office, molded his approach around his predecessor’s errors. Bush’s naive idealism and unilateralism encouraged Obama’s realism and multilateralism. Bush’s boycott of North Korea, Cuba, and Iran fed Obama’s eagerness to engage pragmatically with those tyrannies…

In so doing, Obama now faces an inverted set of hazards: getting overcommitted in Afghanistan, putting too much faith in the United Nations, accommodating dictators instead of standing up to them. Most alarmingly, given all that his predecessor did to discredit them, Obama has failed to stand up for the broader ideas of democracy promotion and humanitarian intervention. Surely if not for Bush, Obama’s instinct after the Iranian election would have been to identify with those risking their lives to free their country, not to get back to his attempt at dialogue with Ahmadinejad(emphasis added).

So Bush is to blame for Obama kissing up to the mullahs? Brilliant! Who knew such a sober foreign-policy “realist” surrounded by the brightest minds of his generation could be so easily unhinged?

For those slow on the uptake (liberals): what the man is saying is that if Bush had used Obama-like policies, then Obama would have been positioned to oppose the Iranian mullahs using Bush-like policies. But because of “hope and change” Obama was forced – you see? – into foreign policy Carterism.

These people are getting desperate – and stupid.

Actually, poem of the day – in this case, just the first part of Lepanto:

White founts falling in the Courts of the sun,

And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;

There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,

It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard;

It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips;

For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.

They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy,

They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea,

And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,

And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross.

The cold queen of England is looking in the glass;

The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass;

From evening isles fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun,

And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is laughing in the sun.

Dim drums throbbing, in the hills half heard,

Where only on a nameless throne a crownless prince has stirred,

Where, risen from a doubtful seat and half attainted stall,

The last knight of Europe takes weapons from the wall,

The last and lingering troubadour to whom the bird has sung,

That once went singing southward when all the world was young.

In that enormous silence, tiny and unafraid,

Comes up along a winding road the noise of the Crusade.

Strong gongs groaning as the guns boom far,

Don John of Austria is going to the war,

Stiff flags straining in the night-blasts cold

In the gloom black-purple, in the glint old-gold,

Torchlight crimson on the copper kettle-drums,

Then the tuckets, then the trumpets, then the cannon, and he comes.

Don John laughing in the brave beard curled,

Spurning of his stirrups like the thrones of all the world,

Holding his head up for a flag of all the free.

Love-light of Spain–hurrah!

Death-light of Africa!

Don John of Austria

Is riding to the sea. – G K Chesterton

Some times, it doesn’t seem to be an accurate description:

Pakistani special forces have taken control of the town of Gojra (Punjab) after yesterday’s bloody episode in which at least 8 people – including 4 women and a child of 7 years – were burned alive and 20 others wounded.

At least 50 houses of Christians were burned and destroyed and thousands of faithful fled to escape execution. Relatives of the victims refuse to take care of dead bodies and do not want funerals until the culprits are arrested. Some of the killed have been identified: Hamed Masih, 50, Asia Bibi, 20; Asifa Bibi, 19, Imam Bibi, 22; Musa 7; Akhlas Masih, 40, Parveen, 50.

At least 3 thousand Muslims, after they have were incited by local religious authorities, marched to the Christian village Gojra founded 50 years ago. Groups of young Muslims – perhaps from the Sunni group Sipah-e-Sahabaha – with their faces covered started to shoot wildly. The villagers fled, but some were trapped and were killed by the uncontrollable fire unleashed by the mob.

The accusation which sparked the massacre? Some mullah claimed that a Christian had burned pages of the Koran. Things like this make one wish there were some of that old, Crusader spirit left alive in our stunted, morally weak society.

How are we to make peace with such as these? What could we do to satisfy them? How many Obama apologies for America would do the trick?

If the government which screwed it up gets shut down:

As a government shutdown loomed, residents of Alabama’s most populous county lined up Friday to renew their car registrations and settle their tax bills.

By Monday, at least a quarter of the county’s 3,600 employees will be on unpaid leave and many county offices will be closed or cutting back hours.

The county, with 640,000 residents, has been on the brink of filing the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy for the past year due to a sewer bond fiasco that remains unresolved. Then things got worse: A judge ruled the county’s occupational tax is illegal and courts refused to let the county spend the revenue from it while officials appeal.

I know, I know – we’re all supposed to be worried about police and fire and I hope that someone over there is ensuring that the cops are able to show up for work…but in “renew their car registrations” we can see what is wrong with government: we have employees working to note that the car you owned last year is still owned by you. A perfect example of useless, make-work government. I agree in registering cars – but once I register it, it should be presumed to be in my possession until someone says otherwise.

I want us to have government after government shut down – and see how easily life goes without bureaucrats hovering over our every move.

This time from South to North:

After three decades as a home to pigeons rather than parishioners, a 175-year-old stone church with Presbyterian roots is once again filled with song on a warm Sunday morning. This time around, however, the brand of faith carries a new tune, one that would be more familiar in Mississippi than Vermont.

Hallelujah religion is a-rising in Yankee country. As liberal congregations die in a secularizing region, conservative churches with roots outside New England are replacing them with a passionate brand of faith that emphasizes saving souls – even in a land where many think there’s nothing to be saved from.

Before worship at Capstone Baptist Church here in North Bennington, 10 adults lay hands on electrician Don Betit and pray for healing from an ankle injury. Then, after 40 minutes of preaching, Pastor Phillip Steadman invites the hurting and newly committed to come forward for an altar call. During intercessory prayers, worship leader Lewis Brown prays for speedy salvation among unbelieving loved ones, “before it’s too late.”

In eight years, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has more than doubled its Vermont church count, from 17 to 37.

Better if they were going Catholic, of course, but anywhere that proclaims Christ as Lord is better than no where, at all. Main thing is that people are leaving the cold, rotting corpse of secular liberalism and turning back towards God.

Gotta make a liberal shiver with fear – or, better, realize he’s got it wrong.

Our prayers for his swift recovery:

The state’s senior U.S. senator, Christopher Dodd, has been heavily criticized for months, suffering from poor poll numbers and questions about discount mortgages he received.

The criticisms stopped Friday, when the 65-year-old Democrat announced he’s been diagnosed with an early stage of prostate cancer and will have surgery soon.

Two of Dodd’s potential Republican rivals in the 2010 election issued get well wishes, saying he was in their families’ prayers. And Chris Healy, chairman of the state Republicans and a vocal critic, was one of the first to e-mail reporters a statement wishing Dodd “the very best in his treatment and rehabilitation.”

“There’s certain things that are political, and there are certain things that are personal,” Healy said when asked about his statement. “I think the more we respect that line, maybe people’s image of the political class might improve.”

Indeed – there are many out there who can use lessons in public decency. Somehow, when I read this story, I thought of Sarah Palin and how she’s fared with her critics, even about her most personal life.

The people are very, very upset over this leftist boondoggle, and you can watch the whole thing on You Tube.

Just say no! To Obamacare, that is.