A Roman rightwing extremist:

Anger so clouds the mind, that it cannot perceive the truth. – Cato the Elder

The step-daughter was married this Saturday…and so, I’m a bit buzzed, a bit tired and a bit uninterested in wracking the thing I use for a brain to write something.

Have at it, boys and girls…

Interesting:

I Was a High-Tech Sweatshop Worker for the Obama Campaign

Why did the candidate of hope and change use workers paid less than half of the minimum wage?

The story:

A pro-family leader in Ohio is blasting pro-life Republican senators who voted to approve the nomination of Kathleen Sebelius as Health and Human Services secretary, despite her long history of support for abortion and her connections to notorious late-term abortionist George Tiller.

Senator George Voinovich (R-Ohio) was among nine Republicans who supported the Sebelius nomination on Tuesday. Phil Burress, president of Cincinnati-based Citizens for Community Values, says he was extremely disappointed but not surprised that Voinovich backed Sebelius.

“He comes from this perspective that the President has the right to pick this person and that the senators are supposed to rubber-stamp them, and I don’t understand why he thinks that way,” he admits. “He’s had that position on many other occasions — and so did Mike DeWine when he was in the Senate, and it cost him his job.”

Burress, a friend and ally of Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), says he was “totally shocked” that Brownback voted for Sebelius. He believes Brownback’s move was driven by his desire to become the next governor of Kansas.

Governor Sebelius is who she is – a liberal Democrat brought in by a liberal Democrat to help advance a liberal, Democratic agenda. No problem – Obama is free to pick whom he wishes and were we in the Senate majority we should only reject a Presidential nominee for moral failure of some sort (and in the Sebelius nomination, a case can be made for that given her deceptions regarding the depth of her pro-abortion support). But since we are the minority and can’t change the result, there is no reason for us to join in and give liberal Democrats our votes. It is time to stand firm – and by registering a negative vote against someone like Sebelius we would be indicating our firmness with that very large and very important part of the GOP coalition: pro-life voters and devout Catholics (Sebelius, after all, has been de-facto excommunicated by the Catholic Church).

Here was a chance for the Senate GOP to let the people know that it is on the people’s side…and nine of them went and blew the chance. What for? Likely just a continuance of that poison known as Senatorial collegiality. Such a sentiment is fine when we’re dealing with political parties which have different ideas about how to achieve the same goals – but when the parties are so starkly divided over what America should be, adhering to the good-old-boy Senate model merely helps the other side and outrages our side.

Its time for the Senate GOP to wake up – in its small minority its job is to ask the questions which expose the liberal agenda, offer up alternatives and in all activities point the way to how the GOP will govern once returned to the majority. The House GOP is very much getting its act together (but still has a long way to go), while the Senate GOP is still acting like its the majority needing too placate a strong, liberal minority in order to keep the meat-grinder of government running smoothly. Times have changed, Senate GOP…time to change with them.

Even the French have the odd rightwing extremist:

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude. – Alexis de Tocqueville

The price of Michelle Obama’s shoes:

While volunteering Wednesday at a D.C. food bank, the First Lady sported her usual J.Crew cardigan, a pair of utilitarian capri pants and, on her feet, a sneaky splurge: trainers that go for $540.

That’s right: These sneakers – suede, with grosgrain ribbon laces and metallic pink toe caps – are made by French design house Lanvin, one of fashion’s hottest labels. They come in denim and satin versions, and have been a brisk seller all spring.

Yeah, but they’re just like us and understand exactly what the middle class is going through…

UDPATE: And as “What Media Bias? Part 147”, please note that McCain’s $520.00 shoes caused unfavorable MSM comment during the campaign.

Our Congressional GOP is just not picking up on what is happening:

After losing Arlen Specter to the Democrats, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell moved quickly to gauge the level of discontent of one of his caucus’ few remaining moderates.

McConnell sat down privately with Sen. Olympia J. Snowe of Maine on Wednesday and let her vent about what she thinks is going wrong with the Grand Old Party.

It was a one-on-one follow-up to a New York Times essay in which Snowe contended the party didn’t need to lose Specter.

After the meeting, Snowe had nothing but good things to say about McConnell, R-Ky., and focused her criticism on other wings of the party.

“My concern is that it’s hard for the leader and others who work here to try to create a more inclusive message that could well be overshadowed or neutralized by the national party,” Snowe said Thursday. “It’s been a painful lesson, but hopefully we will learn from it and build on it.”

A McConnell spokesman said the leader met often with Specter and cultivates relationships on the floor and in office meetings.

“He tends his garden,” spokesman Don Stewart said.

Maine’s two senators, Snowe and Susan Collins , are among the Republicans most likely to vote with Democrats on policies such as energy, entitlements and social issues such as support for abortion rights.

Snowe, Collins and Specter were pivotal to passage of the economic stimulus (PL 111-5), as the only three Republicans in Congress who voted in favor of the bill.

And that last bit is the important part – it wasn’t that we conservatives didn’t like the way Specter, Collins and Snowe are pro-choice but the fact that they can’t even adhere to the very basic GOP principle of low spending even when its a defining issue like Obama’s spendulus package. This wasn’t just some run-of-the-mill spending issue – this was the moment when we switched from GOP governing ideas to Democrat governing ideas. And that is fine – the Democrats won and thus they get to set the agenda…but there was no need for GOPers to join in; let the Democrats take full responsibility with no “bi-partisan” cover. Specter, Collins and Snowe just wanted to be part of the team – the team of whomever is most powerful in DC…and right now its the tax and spend liberalism set which is most powerful, and Specter, Collins and Snowe didn’t want to be uncool and lose out on a possible White House invite or two.

Let no one try to sell us on the Donk talking point that we lost Specter because we’re pro-life, or in favor of winning the war, or what have you…Specter had been with us for years while we were exactly that; he only left because he knew he was toast in the GOP and for Specter the most important thing is that Specter remain at the public trough and continue to be part of the powerful in DC. Specter just turned yellow, plain and simple – courage would have required Specter to either try to win the GOP primary, or switch to Independent and try to win a three-way contest…Specter took the chicken**** path and joined the Democrats, who really don’t care what you believe as long as you’ll vote as you’re told. Specter will now be a good servant to his new masters.

It is time for Senator Snowe to choose – she is welcome in the party just so long as she adheres to core GOP principle: limited government, low taxes, strong defense, etc. But if she feels that her personal political ambitions trump the needs of the GOP, then she must leave…and the sooner the better so we can lay the ground for a GOPer to run for her seat. Its time for Senator McConnell to start listening to the regular folks – we won’t want Snowe in the party if the cost of keeping her means allowing Democrats to gain allegedly GOP cover for their foolish, socialist plans for America. No rancor – heck, not even mild disappointment. Snowe is who she is and she’s perfectly within her right to believe and act as she wishes…but the GOP is a party of principle, and if you can’t adhere to the basics, then its better to get out.

I will disagree with the left on ideological issues regularly, and respectfully, but I cannot respect such an insane thing as what Tony Bennett said about this dumbass we have in the White House:

Grammy-award winning musician Tony Bennett told CNSNews.com he “loves everything” Barack Obama has done in his first 100 days as president and thinks every American should “give him all-out support for anything he wants to do.”

Oh yeah? Does he love his picking of tax cheats and incompetants to serve in his administration? Does he love all the promises he has broken? Does he love how Obama has divided America, or laid the groundwark to free captured terrorists?

I am sorry, I don’t care how much you support any politician, blind acceptance of one person’s actions is dangerous. I really hope our liberal readers here would be smart enough to disagree with Bennett’s statements. His kind of sad, brainless Obamaphelia is what makes Obama so dangerous — because there are so many on the left so desperate to see Obama be a success they will outright ignore his faults and failures.

Part of the reason Obama won is because Bush kept us so safe that the concerns raised by 9/11 were fading from public memory…but now that liberalism is back in the national security saddle, people are starting to get concerned, again:

Minority Leader John Boehner and Pete Hoekstra, ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, have turned out a new video. “Do you feel safer?” they ask. The message is simple: releasing the CIA interrogation memos, halting enhanced interrogation techniques, and shutting Guantanamo without a viable alternative facility for the terrorists may please the Left, but do not enhance national security.

This comes at a time when Attorney General Eric Holder is in Europe trolling for offers to take the Guantanamo terrorists off our hands. So far only Britain and France have taken any (one each), although Holder seemed sunny about the prospects that others will step forward. Even more startling, Holder did not rule out assisting European governments in their prosecution of former Bush officials, as the Washington Post reported:

Holder did not rule it out. “Obviously, we would look at any request that would come from a court in any country and see how and whether we should comply with it,” he said. “This is an administration that is determined to conduct itself by the rule of law.”

All of that was too much for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who took to the Senate floor today, declaring:

It’s clear from these remarks that the administration is putting symbolism ahead of safety. This becomes even more apparent from Attorney General Holder’s admission that closing Guantanamo will be ‘one of the most daunting challenges’ he will face. He clearly realizes what most Americans realize: closing Guantanamo is not a good option if no safe alternatives exist.

There is an amazing level of immaturity in the Obama Administration approach to foreign and defense policy – it is a sort of policy by incantation: if Obama apologizes enough and if we show ourselves willing to put our own on trial, the world will forgive us the Bush years and thus we’ll be safe. You can be sure that if terrorists kill 3,000 more of us a year or two from now that the world will be profuse in its expressions of sympathy…but that won’t help the dead, and won’t help prevent a repeat. Only aggressive action against the enemy will do anything at all…President Bush kept us safe, in large part, by going out into the world and harrying the enemy at every opportunity. President Obama makes us less safe by stating, in advance, that there are certain things we won’t do…going around begging for others to take the Gitmo detainees off our hands just adds a pathetic element to the mix.

We can only hope – and pray – that over the 8 years of Bush enough damage was done to the terrorist that they won’t be able to mount a large attack until such time as we can get a GOP replacement into the White House. In other words, we have to find a way to win the political fight before Obama loses the military fight. Already the enemy is being encouraged – easily spotting Obama for the fool that he is and presuming that he’ll add “coward” to “fool” when pressed, at least as far as our enemies are concerned.

Turns out there are rightwing extremists even in Europe:

As soon as man began considering himself the source of the highest meaning in the world and the measure of everything, the world began to lose its human dimension, and man began to lose control of it. – Vaclav Havel