Petard, Your Own, Hoist By. Syrian Edition.

Rand Paul kicks ass. Proof.

If he and Christie can get it together, we have our dream team for 2016.

Slip Of The Spin.

Obama doesn't want "massive job killing tax increases" right now. Nope. Nope. Nope.

He wants to wait 'till 2013.

Remember that come November 2012.

Double Standard.

If Sarah Palin or George W. Bush had pulled a gaffe like this, The Left / Mainstream Media would be holding it up as proof of their incompetence. Everyone would be talking about it. But since it was their hero, he'll get a pass.

Irony Alert! Or, Bottoming Out Again.

Obama's peeps gas up his limo at a BP station in the UK.

How nice. You get a free fill-up with every disaster.

As Insty points out, some people get a fat chunk of campaign cash, too!

And in a related note...

The Man Who Shot Osama Bin Laden.

(Note: Below is a guest post by The Grey Man, with his unique and insightful take on recent events. Read it all.)

Sometimes, life imitates art.

Today I am reminded of a 1962 classic film, one of the great stories written by James Warner Bellah. This film was also a rare pairing of John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart. Of course, I refer to "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance". There was even a very early sixties theme song.

For those of you who haven't seen the film, I'll have to summarize:

Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) is the classic bad guy who terrorizes the town. The only man in town who will stand up to Liberty is a local tough, but good guy, Tom Doniphon (John Wayne). One day a lawyer, Ransom Stoddard (Jimmy Stewart) comes to town, carrying law books but no gun. Of course, Liberty and Ransom come into conflict, and the local law, Marshal Link Appleyard (Andy Devine) is no use. It has to be settled with a gunfight. Ransom Stoddard wins, and becomes famous as "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance". Because of his fame, he gets Statehood passed, gets elected to the Senate, as Governor, etc. And he gets Doniphon's girl in the process.

But all is not as it seems. Actually, Doniphon killed Valance from the shadows. When Stoddard tries to set the record straight many years later, the press refuses to tell the facts. The money line is "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend".

Today, I think we have seen President Obama's re-election campaign laid out.

The President has been polling very poorly among independents, the soft center. Obamacare, gas prices, unemployment, foreign policy, etc., weigh heavily on their minds. Yet they are a patriotic group.

For the next 18 months, I predict criticism of the President will be answered with "He's the "Man Who Shot Osama Bin Laden"". Calling your opponents racist at every turn is a negative, and has become ineffective. Now, the President's supporters have something popular to point to. There's already a theme song written for this role.

This seems, historically, somewhat silly. Did the press laud President Roosevelt for giving the order to assassinate Admiral Yamamoto during the election of 1944? Also how will ordering assassinations play with the President's base?

Regardless, it seems that, politically, we are in for a remake of this classic film.

How will we cast this remake?

Liberty Valance - Osama Bin Laden. The big bad guy.

Ransom Stoddard - President Obama. This is the apparent hero, who gets the credit for something others have done. While he does not actively claim credit, neither does he give the appropriate credit until way too late. He also takes the great love of the true hero.

Tom Doniphon - Seal Team Six, and the entire US military. These are the real heroes, who do the right thing time and again with no thanks. They put it all on the line, time and again, and don't complain when the credit gets given to someone else.

Marshal Link Appleyard - Eric Holder. This is the bumbling law enforcement officer who is totally ineffective at stopping the terrorizing of the town.

Major Cassius Starbuckle - Any Republican presidential candidate. In the film, Maj. Starbuckle is the man who runs against Stoddard for office at the Territorial Convention. He gets called "The Cattlemen's Mouthpiece". Expect any Republican candidate to be called "The Oilman's Mouthpiece" or in the pocket of Big Something or Other.

Hallie Stoddard - The American voters. Hallie is Doniphon's love interest, who dumps him for Stoddard. Never mind that while both Stoddard and Doniphon had the courage to confront Valance's terror, only Doniphon had the skill to stop it. The President is hoping our appreciation for a difficult and dangerous job well done will accrue to him, not the ones who have been fighting terror for years.

We will, of course, have to forget that the President has been slashing the budget of the very operators who carried out this mission. Ignore what you just paid for gas, milk and bread. Pay no attention to the man groping your crotch at the airport. Just keep humming "The Man Who Shot Osama Bin Laden".

How Much Of A Lightweight Is Barack Obama?

This much: He just coughed up his birth certificate. Why? Because of pressure from Donald Trump. Donald. Freakin'. Trump. The leader of the free world just got beat by a pompous blowhard with bad hair.

No wonder Kadaffi/Qaddafi/Gadaffii/(insert your spelling here) is still in power. Let's see how long it is before we get Barry's college records, too.

Obama's SOTU Speech Channels Bush 41. Sort of.

"A million points of trite." Indeed.

If Obama Was A Soccer Goalie...

...It would look something like this.

People Skills 101.

When you're the boss, the big cheese, the top dog, A Number One, sometimes you have to suffer through things you really, really don't want to do. When that happens, at least pretend you are even remotely interested. Don't do... this.

The local connection to that menorah is here.

People Unclear On The Concept II.

Team Hopenchange really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, missed the message of last night's election. As always, it's all about them.

With work, a lovely server crash this morning and a meeting in New Orleans tonight, my opining on yesterday's election will have to wait until tomorrow.

Montgomery, 2010.

How desperate is post-racial, transformational uniter Barack Obama about 2 November? This desperate:

We don't mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back."

It's OK, though. To continue the metaphor, we got our own lady who refuses to sit quietly in the back of the bus.

What's next? Barry and his fellow travelers blocking doorways? Oh, wait...

A Short, Short Time Ago, In A Galaxy Far, Far Away.

What would The Empire Strike Back look like if Darth Vader tried to rally his forces by claiming the Rebel Alliance was actually the Empire, and the Empire was actually the rebels? It would look something like this.

Obama already finds our lack of faith disturbing.

UPDATE: While our Princess Lea isn't his daughter, but he is her cousin.

Mr. President, Please Attack Me.

To: President Obama

From: Clifford at Red Stick Rant

Re: Instant Fame and Fortune

As soon as possible, please attack, insult, demean, or otherwise criticize Red Stick Rant by name in the national media, or attack me personally. I'm begging you.

An Expensive Lesson.

Barack Obama: “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects”. Well, duh. Anybody who's ever worked the private/productive sector could tell you that.

We can't change our President-in-training until 2012, but we can change the Congress on 2 November. We simply can't afford $787 billion OJT exercises.

UPDATE: See the post just above - I'd say Detroit was a bulldozer-ready project...

Picking Up The Gauntlet.

President Obama throws down the gauntlet to the Tea Party Movement:

President Barack Obama challenged the conservative "Tea Party" political movement and its Republican supporters on Monday to be specific about what government spending they would cut if they had the power to do so.

No problem. We're up for a challenge.

An Inconvenient Creator, Or, Hopenchange Civics 101.

This:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness;

Through the prism of Hopenchange is now this:



I guess we don't need some pesky Creator now that we have Barry and Government. Not surprising, therefore, he conveniently left out the next bit about the role of government and who works for who:

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Kinda awkward for a totalitarian do-gooder.

P.S. Mexicans were not here before the US.

The Future Is Now!

ObamaCare Promise: Obamacare will reduce your health care costs and you can keep your plan!

ObamaCare Reality: We own you, bitches.

ObamaCare is little more than the penultimate Progressivist goal - an end-around on the limitations of the Constitution. It is a way to infringe upon your Rights without measure and centralize unlimited power in Washington, DC, all under the guise of administering our "health care". The proponents know that. To them, this is a feature - not a bug. (Sure, you'll still have a "Right" to own a gun, or criticize the President, or eat french fries. But you'll lose your health care coverage if you do...)

Ironic, isn't it, that an African-American President is the one, more than any of his predecessors, working to make us all slaves of the State.

We have the chance, dear readers, to stop Obama and the Pelosi/Reid clique on 2 November, and begin to return our nation - and your place in it - to what Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and Madison had in mind. Take. That. Chance. You have nothing to lose but Obama's chains!

Stone Free.

Cribbing your quotes from the greatest rock guitarist ever doesn't make you the greatest President ever. Just sayin'.

What's next? Nancy Pelosi saying, "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose"...? Or, Joe Biden channeling the Cate Brothers? OK, the last one was a bit of a stretch.

"We're Moving In The Right Direction".

If you think it's peachy for your children and grandchildren (and likely great-grandchildren) to be indentured to Chinese and Saudi bankers tomorrow so that Big Labor, Big Welfare, and The Ruling Class can keep ignoring fiscal realities today... then yes, Comrade, you can say we're moving in the right direction.

Obama: "We're Moving In The Right Direction."

Unemployment jumps to 9.6%.

If, on the other hand, Obama is acknowledging the mood of this nation and the looming Democrat electoral disaster in November, then yes, Barry is quite correct - we are moving in the 'right' direction. Because, well, America has decided Barry's 'left' direction pretty much sucks.