The Nigh Seen Creeder

Have you ever noticed that the majority of the biggest dumbasses serving in Congress are Democrats? From Barbara Boxer to Maxine Waters to Shelia Jackson-Lee to Alan Grayson ... whenever you hear a member of Congress sticking both of his or feet in his or her mouth, nine times out of ten it's a Democrat.

Here's the dumbass Democrat du jour:

Due to the reg-a-lations in ObamaCare, another company is getting kicked in the you-know-whats with new taxes:

Illinois Tool Works Inc ... announced that as a result of certain provisions in the recently enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care program, future Medicare prescription drug subsidies received by the Company for retiree prescription drug coverage will now be taxable. As a result, the Company expects to record a discrete tax adjustment of $22 million, or 4 cents of diluted income per share from continuing operations, in its 2010 first quarter results to reflect this change in tax treatment.

How in the hell does the Barry Obama Administration expect American industry to create new jobs when he's either threatening to whomp 'em with millions of dollars of new taxes, or actually whomping 'em with millions of dollars of new taxes?

God-a-mighty we got us a clueless boob -- er, a clueless socialist boob -- in the White House

Chris Johnson, the Tennessee Titans' fast-as-lightning running back, has a new car. Here 'tis:


Now, that's certainly not a car I would drive (I'm quite happy driving my Monte Carlo with the "Tennessee Republican" bumper sticker). But I'm of the opinion that a man should be able to drive whatever kind o' car that floats his boat. What intrigues me most about Johnson' voiture, however, is this Tweet in which he announces his purchase:

"My donk on 30inch sliders done talking whoever want it."

What in God's name is that supposed to mean?! Perhaps an in-the-know Creeder Reader can enlighten me on "donking" and such ...

As someone who "does" math for a living, this piece caught my attention (and caused me to chuckle just a few times):

With the Boomer Revolution came the reinvention of everything we used to take for granted. The first old guard institution they decided to shut down was, "Doing the math." Now we have New Math and the word "Science" applies to everything from astrology to having your hair done. You can take classes in "How to be Gay," "What not to Wear," and "The History of Feminist Tweets."

Of course, the side effect of all this "Nobody’s Wrong" culture is "Everybody’s Correct" — even dropouts like Michael Moore, Sean Penn, and Janeane Garofalo. You can say anything is a life-threatening epidemic because nobody took real math after freshman year of high school so nobody knows how much is too much. All of a sudden, people who did water colors of farts in college are telling you: how steel behaves under certain temperatures, how CO2 affects the global environment, how investment firms need to deal with bundled mortgages, and their favorite parts of a 2,300 page health care bill.

These same people believe: CEOs are the ones taking all our money, we need to pay more tax, our schools are underfunded, and our children aren’t safe.

It’s hard to ask someone who got a dolphin in math, "What’s the math?" but I ask it anyway. They don’t care. They just know we need more shit. The numbers don’t matter. "Yes they do!" I scream. Then they go off on some tangent about my anger and how it’s my mother’s fault.

Certainly CEOs making money off a company that failed is deplorable. John Thain made 10 million dollars after running Merrill Lynch into the ground but that’s one guy. Wall Street is one street. Yes, there are absurd bonuses going on down in one part of Lower Manhattan but you’re talking about a handful of pigs. Civil servants make an average of $40k a year in bonuses alone. That’s $480 000 000 000 in tips. Who’s John Thain again? I forgot. I’m supposed to pay more taxes to an entity that makes what, half a nantillion in tips? I’ve said this before but Obama’s going for a total handout of 13 trillion dollars. About half the American population is employed which means each worker will be obligated to pay $85,000. They say this math is unfair because the rich will be picking up most of the tab but that is quite the dinner bill. Why is it so hard for people to understand that 12 million people stealing a little is a lot more damaging than one guy stealing a lot?

Another annoying myth mathists (math racists) love to tell us is schools need more money. Oooh, they have the same books they had last year, how sad. The way education is going; having old books is a school’s only hope. In the 1960s, children were reading Wuthering Heights in the third grade. Today you’re not going to get to Dickens until you’re third year at NYU and even then you’re going to need 40mgs of Adderall to follow it. The truth is we’ve doubled spending on education since I was born and it hasn’t done anything to test scores. According to the US Dept of Education, today’s k-12 schools get about a quarter of a million dollars per classroom per year. If teaching kids using gold chalkboards and diamond chalk is not affecting a student’s grades maybe it’s time to stop bitching about money and give the teacher a second look.

Nowhere does this fear of numbers inconvenience us more than the safety obsession. My kid is expected to wear a helmet whether she’s ensconced in her safety seat on the back of my bike or simply pushing her scooter around the playground. Outside of retards, my generation didn’t know what a helmet was until we were in our 20s. Now I’m supposed to put my kids in car seats until they’re eight-years-old!? EIGHT!? No wonder American kids are getting so fucking fat. We’re not allowed to let them have any fun. When I was eight we were making jumps for our bikes that went so high, you had to bring a magazine with you to read while you were up there. Not only did we not have helmets we didn’t have brakes. We stopped the front wheel with our feet. The worst that would happen would be the ghetto blaster you duct taped to the handlebars might make the Mötley Crüe cassette skip. Cut to my son at that age sitting in a fucking car seat like a paraplegic? Hell NO!

The defendants of legislation like this point out stats like 300 children were killed last year because they graduated from child seats too soon. Then they twist the number and say, "Imagine a school blew up with 300 children in it. There’d be a massive outcry." Frankly, it’s a miracle there aren’t more fatalities on the roads. There, you just passed a guy you could’ve hit. There’s another. There’s a truck you could’ve smashed into. What if you went off the road there? You’d be dead, ad infinitum, thousands of times a day. When you factor in the trillions and trillions of potential crashes the average American driver avoids in his life on the road, 300 is beyond negligible. It’s literally a ten-thousandth of a percent! Math is so vilified in today’s Fear Economy, we are living our lives based on a thousandth of a percent of the population. That’s enough to make Gay Marriage look relevant.

I could go on about this for 3.5 more hours but I’m over my 700-word count, which is already 100 words over the average blog article so I’ll stop right here, on the 970th word.

Remember when Barry told us that health insurance premiums would go down under ObamaCare? Wrong.

Beginning in 2014, most Americans will be required to buy insurance or pay a tax penalty. That's when premiums for young adults seeking coverage on the individual market would likely climb by 17% on average, or roughly $42 a month, according to an analysis of the plan conducted for The Associated Press.

The New York Times' Frank Rich recently stated that racism and bigotry is the true raison d'être of ObamaCare opponents.

Pat Sajak -- yes, the Pat Sajak -- has penned an excellent piece at Human Events in which he takes issue with Rich's ridiculous assertion. A sample (HT: Erick Erickson):

Welcome to post-racial America, where those who oppose a piece of legislation must defend themselves against the scurrilous charges of a man who seems much better suited to reviewing “Cats”. (He liked it, by the way.) This was a particularly shameful column, and the millions of Americans who oppose this legislation are owed an apology. Are they right? Are they wrong? Let’s discuss it. Let’s debate it. Let’s yell and scream if we want to. But would it be too much to ask that we approach the matter based on its merits and leave the psychobabble to Dr. Phil?

Kinda reminds me of something I said back in '08:

Leftists for years have been screaming racism whenever they're dealing with someone who does not share their political views. I have to give 'em credit, though, because it's been an effective rhetorical tool.

If a liberal's debating someone over the merits of, say, a flat-rate income tax, all he has to do is accuse his opponent of being a racist for supporting a flat tax. The debate immediately shifts from whether or not a flat tax makes good economic sense (which it does) to whether or not the accused is actually a racist. Caught flat-footed, the accused gets knocked off-message trying to explain that Bull Connor's not going to be revived to run the IRS if a flat tax is instituted.

The race card is not going to work when it comes to ObamaCare. Opposition has been too widespread, and across too many demographic lines, to be attributed to anger amongst white dudes in robes. As the 2010 elections heat up, and as the dirty details of ObamaCare's mandates, taxes, and stifling regulations become more clear, Obama and his supporters will be constantly defending what is, in fact, in indefensible ... and that is: ObamaCare is a long step in Obama's march toward statism. Leftists can play dirty pool and call names all they want, but their day of reckoning is barely seven months away.

Just you wait and see.

It's March Madness and in offices across the land folks are, ahem, betting on which team they think will win the Big Dance. After basketball season ends, I think offices should consider allowing people to throw into a pool and guess which campaign promise President Obama will break next. Of course, every office has at least one left-wing nutbucket who'd complain, but the potential for big bucks would be great incentive for the non-nutbuckets to participate as Obama seems to be on pace to break at least one "I will/I won't" campaign promise per week.

National Review's Jim Geraghty has done yeoman's work in compiling a list of Obama's broken promises to date. You can read his post here (it's rather lengthy, as anyone who's been paying attention to all things Obama knows). Some highlights:

HEALTH CARE MANDATES

STATEMENT: "We've got a philosophical difference, which we've debated repeatedly, and that is that Senator Clinton believes the only way to achieve universal health care is to force everybody to purchase it. And my belief is, the reason that people don't have it is not because they don't want it but because they can't afford it." Barack Obama, speaking at a Democratic presidential debate, February 21, 2008.

EXPIRATION DATE: On March 23, 2010, Obama signed the individual mandate into law.

RAISING TAXES

STATEMENT: "No family making less than $250,000 will see any form of tax increase." (multiple times on the campaign trail)

EXPIRATION DATE: Broken multiple times, including the raised taxes on tobacco, a new tax on indoor tanning salons, but most prominently on February 11, 2010: "President Barack Obama said he is 'agnostic' about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000 as part of a broad effort to rein in the budget deficit."

RECESS APPOINTMENTS

STATEMENT: Then-Senator Obama declared that a recess appointment is "damaged goods" and has "less credibility" than a normal appointment. August 25, 2005.

EXPIRATION DATE: March 27, 2010: "If, in the interest of scoring political points, Republicans in the Senate refuse to exercise that responsibility, I must act in the interest of the American people and exercise my authority to fill these positions on an interim basis."

MILITARY TRIBUNALS

STATEMENT: "Somebody like Khalid Sheik Mohammad is gonna get basically, a full military trial with all the bells and whistles." September 27, 2006

EXPIRATION DATE: Ongoing. "President Obama is planning to insert himself into the debate about where to try the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, three administration officials said Thursday, signaling a recognition that the administration had mishandled the process and triggered a political backlash. Obama initially had asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to choose the site of the trial in an effort to maintain an independent Justice Department. But the White House has been taken aback by the intense criticism from political opponents and local officials of Holder's decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed in a civilian courtroom in New York."

RECOVERY.GOV

STATEMENT: "We will launch a sweeping effort to root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government, and every American will be able to see how and where we spend taxpayer dollars by going to a new website called recovery.gov." – President Obama, January 28, 2009

EXPIRATION DATE: "More than two months after some of the funds were released, [Recovery.gov] offers little detail on where the money is going… The government [spent] $84 million on a website that doesn't have a search function, when its purpose is to 'root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government.'" April 2, 2009

And here are eighteen campaign promises Obama broke during his first 100 days in office ...

1. "As President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide."

2. "I will make sure that we renegotiate [NAFTA]."

3. Opposed a Colombian Free Trade Agreement because advocates ignore that "labor leaders have been targeted for assassination on a fairly consistent basis."

4. "Now, what I’ve done throughout this campaign is to propose a net spending cut."

5. "If we see money being misspent, we're going to put a stop to it, and we will call it out and we will publicize it."

6. "Yesterday, Jim, the head of Caterpillar, said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off."

7. "I want to go line by line through every item in the Federal budget and eliminate programs that don't work, and make sure that those that do work work better and cheaper."

8. "[My plan] will not help speculators who took risky bets on a rising market and bought homes not to live in but to sell."

9. "Instead of allowing lobbyists to slip big corporate tax breaks into bills during the dead of night, we will make sure every single tax break and earmark is available to every American online."

10. "We can no longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a member of Congress's seniority, rather than the merit of the project."

11. "If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime."

12. "Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe the United States has to be frank with the Chinese about such failings and will press them to respect human rights."

13. "We must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights."

14. "Lobbyists won’t work in my White House!"

15. "The real gamble in this election is playing the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expecting a different result."

16. "I'll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we'll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills."

17. "Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days." Obama is 1-for-11 on this promise so far.

18. A special one on the 100th day, "the first thing I'd do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That's the first thing I'd do."

Looks like Spring has sprung (outside o' my house, anyway) ...

A lot of us cynical types have been saying for months that Obama's "stimulus" is nothing but a taxpayer-financed slush fund for helping Democrats get re-elected. Here's proof:


More here.

Be careful what you wish for ... you've heard that expression, right? When Democrats started "wishing" for reconciliation as a way to pass ObamaCare over and past the will of the American people, well, the GOP now has a goldmine of roll call votes to use 'gainst Democrats this fall.

Kimberly Strassel tells us 'bout it:

Democrats only got their ObamaCare victory by breaking every rule, and that was always going to come at a price. To lever the health bill through the House, Democrats used the arcane process of reconciliation. It got them a win, but it also meant Senate Democrats this week had to endure the political equivalent of water-boarding.

Here's why: reconciliation allowed Republicans to bring up unlimited amendments. Because Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) could not allow the reconciliation bill to be changed in any way—which would send it back to the House—his party was obliged to vote down every one of those amendments. And every one had been designed to make even hardened pols whimper.

Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) offered language to bar the government from subsidizing erectile dysfunction drugs for convicted pedophiles and rapists. Democrats voted . . . No! Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) proposed exempting wounded soldiers from the new tax on medical devices. Democrats: No way! Pat Roberts (R., Kan.) wanted to exempt critical access rural hospitals from funding cuts. Senate Democrats: Forget it! This was Republicans' opportunity to lay out every ugly provision and consequence of ObamaCare, and Democrats—because of the process they'd chosen—had to defend it all.

And so it went, into the wee Thursday hours. All Democrats in favor of taxing pacemakers? Aye! All Democrats in favor of keeping those seedy vote buyoffs? Aye! All Democrats in favor of raising taxes on middle-income families? Aye! All Democrats in favor of exempting themselves from elements of ObamaCare? Aye! All Democrats in favor of roasting small children in Aga ovens? (Okay, I made that one up, but you get the point.) Aye!

Aye-yi-yi.

If you think Senate Democrats who voted "for" giving Viagra to pedophiles and who voted against exempting veterans from taxes on medical devices are the only ones who'll get blasted with oppo ads this November, think again. Those Senate votes will be an albatross 'round the neck of every Democrat in a competitive race come this fall. Just you wait and see ...

Here are the Top 5 Disasters in the Democrats' Reconciliation bill ...

The Reconciliation Act of 2010 is a disastrous, anti-growth tax hike bill. If this were any other year, it would be by far the year's worst piece of legislation. This bill is once-a-decade bad, but unfortunately overshadowed by the all-time bad affront to personal freedom and fiscal sanity the president signed into law yesterday.

First and worst, the bill hikes the investment tax on capital gains and dividends. That’s the most anti-growth tax hike possible. The Reconciliation Act creates a new 3.8 percent Medicare tax on single filers over $200,000 and married filers over $250,000. The rich? Not quite. This slams business owners and makes it harder for them to raise capital for needed equipment purchases, expansion, and job creation. And there is no inflation indexing, so it will directly hit more and more taxpayers over time.

Investment taxes are especially inappropriate as a "pay-for"; that’s because every capital gains hike has actually lowered revenues due to the economic damage and behavioral changes it caused.

Second, the reconciliation bill makes the business assault of the new health care law much worse. It raises the penalty on employers from $750 per uncovered employee to $2,000.

Third, the bill takes over the private aspects of the student loan industry, putting tens of thousands out of work in the private sector while building up a big new student loan bureaucracy. And this is supposed to happen by next semester, so you can expect lots of headaches for students in the short term as well the long-term costs of bigger government.

Fourth, the "fix" to the Cadillac tax actually makes it worse. Under current law the exemption amount is indexed to CPI plus 1 percent. That’s is already not a high enough inflation bar to keep up with medical costs. The reconciliation bill delays the start of the tax by five years, from 2013 to 2018, but it cuts the inflation adjustment to plain CPI. The lower inflation adjustment means this tax will hit more people faster.

Finally, the Nebraska "fix" (the only one of the infamous and corrupt deals Obama signed into law yesterday that’s actually revisited in the reconciliation) is now a much worse deal for taxpayers. Nebraska no longer gets special treatment, but the new Medicaid funding formula puts federal taxpayers on the hook for 90 percent of the cost of expansion for all states, with special funding increases for 17 states and the District of Columbia. This is welfare reform in reverse; we should be building on the AFDC block-grant model of state control and innovation that worked so well in the 1990s, not federalizing Medicaid.

Remember back in '08 when Obama's supporters promised us a "transformational" presidency? Well, President Obama is certainly transforming America ... into a redistributionist welfare state the likes of which ain't been seen since 1989. Indeed.

If ObamaCare is such a super idea, how come Obama and his minions in Congress ain't subject to its reg'lations, dictates, and sich?!

If I wuz a left-winger -- I'm way too educated, and I have way too much common sense to be a left-winger (I'm just wuz-ing for speculative effect) -- I'd be real pissed knowing that the folks who purport to be for the common man ain't willing to live like the common man.

To wit:

The new health care law exempts the president from having to participate in it. Leadership and committee staffers in the House and Senate who wrote the bill are exempted as well. A weasel-worded definition of "staff" includes only the members' personal staff in the new system; the committee staff that drafted the legislation opted themselves out. Because they were more familiar with the contents of the law than anyone in the country, it says a lot that they carved out their own special loophole. Anyway, the law is intended to affect "ordinary Americans," according to Vice President Joe Biden (who - being a heartbeat away from the presidency - also is not covered), not Washington insiders.

Read the rest here.

I don't know how it happened, but I recently ended up on the Tennessee Democratic Party's e-mail list. I must say I've enjoyed the Interweb messages I've received from the TNDP. In each and every one of 'em I've been able to find tidbits that're either stupid, surreal, or flat-out lies ... and sometimes I find tidbits that are all three at once.

That said, the lead story in the most recent e-mail I received from the TNDP is an announcement that Vice President Joe "Gaffe-Boy" Biden will be the speaker at this year's Jackson Day Dinner. [Note: You know, state Democratic shindigs used to be called Jackson-Jefferson Day Dinners. I guess someone got to reading 'bout Thomas Jefferson, and what he had to say about limited government and individual liberty, and said, "Man, that dude was a right-wing kook!" Hence, no more Tom Jefferson being name-checked when Democrats gather.] That would be the same Joe Biden who drops f-bombs on live television, uses fake quotes from classical Roman poets in his speeches, and who, at a White House gathering honoring the prime minister of Ireland, incorrectly asserted that the Irish PM's mother is dead. Yeah, Democrats should be real proud of their Vice President.

Then there's this little nugget from the TNDP:

Gov. Bredesen, with the help of Democrats in the General Assembly, have provided an environment in the last seven years that has seen the creation of 179,296 new jobs. Too bad the state lost 89,400 jobs - and saw its unemployment rate go from 7.6 to 10.4 - from December 2008 and December 2009. From December 2009 to January 2010, a grand total of 600 jobs were created in Tennessee ... and 200 of 'em were gov'ment jobs. If I were Bredesen and the TNDP, I don't think I'd be crowing too much about that.

Finally, here's the picture from atop the TNDP's latest e-mail:


I wonder if anyone at the state Democratic Party took the time to research whether or not that's a Confederate cannon? If it is indeed a Confederate cannon, what does that say about the TNDP? Paging Al Sharpton ...!

I'm gonna let the Gary Bauer tell you 'bout what happened last night -- and what liberty-loving citizens need to do in the weeks to come. Before I do so, however, I wanna say this:

I'm an ordinary workin' "Joe" who pays for his own health care insurance. Two things 'bout ObamaCare strike me personally -- in a philosophical sense, one, as I consider my undergraduate and graduate schooling; and, two, in a I'm-just-an-ordinary-working-"Joe" sense, as I consider what kind of hits my wallet's gonna take when ObamaCare becomes the law of the land.

First, as someone who's read a book or two (to borrow a line from Bill Clinton circa-1992), and who's received a degree or two, I've never bought for one minute Barry Obama's talking points that his health care scheme is going to save money. I mean, the VA, Medicare and Medicaid are all in-the-red entries on fed and state gov'ment balance sheets. So how, exactly, will we be saving money by pouring millions of subsidized individuals onto the same balance sheets?!

Second, now that insurance companies will be required to enroll all comers, even those who wait until they're sick as a fuckin' dog before signin' up, someone is gonna have to pay for the enrollin'. The someone in question is gonna be folks who work hard and play by the rules -- more Bill Clinton from '92 -- like yours truly. Certain I-only-work-a-few-weeks-each-year/Creeder-Reading leftists might crow now that I'm on the hook for their lazy-ass health care premiums, but they're not gonna like me very much, personal-like, in the weeks to come ... and that's a by-God promise, indeed.

From The Campaign For Working Families PAC:

Last night, Democrats passed ObamaCare by a vote of 219-to-212. The most bi-partisan aspect of the bill was theopposition to it. Republicans voted unanimously against it and they were joined by 34 Democrats. This bill raises taxes by more than $500 billion. It imposes new taxes on investments and new fines on businesses. It imposes unconstitutional mandates on Americans and funds abortion. And the Democrats own it entirely. This is what happens when liberals get power.

In a weekend of outrageous statements, the worst was to hear Obama and Pelosi describing their takeover of nearly 20% of our economy in the language of liberty. They cloaked one of the biggest expansions of government and retractions of liberty in our nation’s history in conservative rhetoric. For example, Nancy Pelosi hailed the vote as "great act of patriotism."

After the House vote, President Obama said, "We proved that this government — a government of the people and by the people — still works for the people." But the American people didn’t want this bill. The latest Rasmussen poll found that likely voters opposed it 41%-to-54%. In fact, there is not a single poll the president or congressional Democrats can point to in the past 60 days that shows public support for the legislation that passed last night.

Republicans did everything in their power to stop socialized medicine. The reconciliation process that Democrats used to circumvent Republican efforts is proof of that. And while Democrats are celebrating today, they have damaged our democratic republic in the process. The bill was written behind closed doors. Committee hearings were a charade. It passed the Senate not because of the legislation’s merits, but because of special deals and kickbacks. Until the national uproar, Democrats had planned on passing it without even voting on it.

When a Republican doesn’t vote consistently for conservative principles, we call him a RINO – a Republican In Name Only. I don’t know what you call a Democrat who betrays his core principles, but this bill should be called the "Stupak Abortion Subsidy Act."

Rep. Bart Stupak has been elected to Congress as a Democrat since 1992 in a relatively conservative district. But he was always pro-life. Yesterday, Stupak sold out his pro-life values for an executive order from the most pro-abortion president in history. An executive order cannot override legislation. That’s why the Hyde Amendment was so important and has been reaffirmed by every Congress for more than 30 years. The Senate bill funds abortion, which is why Stupak consistently said he was a "No" vote until the very end.

My friends, there’s no way to sugar coat this. Last night’s vote was a major set back – just one of many negative consequences of recent elections. Obama said recently that he was going to wear us down. The Democrats aren’t done. Immigration "reform" is next. This is gut check time for conservatives.

What is the solution? There is only one: We must win elections. But please do not email me asking about impeachment. Impeachment is a political process conducted by Congress, and liberal Democrats – Obama’s allies – dominate Congress. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are not going impeach Barack Obama.

If you don’t like the policies coming out of Washington today, the solution is to change the politicians making them. That means contributing to conservative groups and supporting conservative candidates, staying united against the Left, outworking the liberals and outvoting them on Election Day.

Now if your reaction is to throw your hands up in despair, give up and walk away, then Obama has worn you down. But if your reaction is to recommit to the values we cherish and fight even harder in the political arena, then it’s not too late to take back our country and make America the "shining city upon a hill" our Founding Fathers envisioned. I’m not giving up and I pray you will continue to stand with me!

A few years ago -- a few more than I'd like to let on -- I worked in the office of a Republican state representative from Murfreesboro. Said representative was once working on a bill which would've alerted state correction officers whenever HIV-positive prisoners were in their midst, and he asked for Rep. Bart Gordon's assistance in getting it passed. Gordon said he'd help. However, when the ACLU threw-in against the bill, ol' Bart stopped returning my boss's phone calls. "What a ****ing rat bastard" ... that's what my boss, the state rep., said.

At that point, I already knew that Bart Gordon was a rat bastard. You see, Bart Gordon once looked me in the eye and told me he was "committed" to do something, and then he lied through his teeth. And he had the temerity to leave a message on my answering machine calling me a "liar" and a "punk" when I told folks 'bout him being a lying liar.

To make a long story short, I once got Bart Gordon's commitment to participate in a debate at Middle Tennessee State University 'gainst his then-opponent Marsha Blackburn. Bart backed out; I called him on it in a press release faxed to virtually every media outlet in Middle Tennessee; and then I got called tacky names by a sitting member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

That said, I'm not one bit surprised that Bart Gordon is now four-square behind ObamaCare, after voting "no" back in the Fall. Time will tell what all Nancy Pelosi's promised Bart to make him switch his vote -- rumor has it that he's next-in-line to be top-dog at NASA. All I know is this:

Bart Gordon is, and has always been, a rat bastard. When Sen. Tom Coburn puts the kibosh on his appointment as NASA head, the audible laughter you'll hear will be from one Joltin' Django. And I'll laugh and laugh, 'cause Bart will be gettin' what's been coming to him, and then some.

The Obama Presidency has been a surreal episode in and of itself. Now that his minions in the U.S. House of Representatives are prepared to foist ObamaCare on the public-at-large by way of a "deeming" rule -- Creeder Readers are an enlightened lot, and you know 'bout which I speak -- well, what's happening in D.C. has moved beyond surreal and we're now, officially, in "What in God's name is happening to us?" mode.

If a Republican chamber of Congress ever took it upon itself to pass a piece of legislation without actually passing it, MSNBC's prime-time talking heads, and the left-wing nutbuckets who gather at DailyKos.com, would erupt in fits of extreme apoplexy. You know it. I know it. And the American people know it (apologies to SNL).

ObamaCare is still not a done deal. If we awake on Monday to find that it's been deemed, er, passed into law, that ain't it ... no matter what Barry Obama might say. Fred Barnes tells us that ObamaCare will not only be a big issue in the 2010 elections, it will be THE defining issue in every election for decades to come (and Democrats are going to have a wee bit of hell to pay in 'em all). To wit:

If ObamaCare passes, sooner or later the backlash against it would morph into a movement to repeal it. Republicans would likely make repeal a top issue in congressional elections this November. The GOP is expected to win a substantial number of seats in Congress this fall. If Republicans take control of the House or Senate or both, clashes over health care would be unavoidable.

Assuming it passes, ObamaCare wouldn't go into effect fully until 2013. This fact alone would make the health-care plan a paramount issue in the 2012 presidential race, regardless of whether Mr. Obama is on the ballot. As long as he's president, Mr. Obama would surely veto legislation to repeal or gut ObamaCare. With a Republican in the White House things would be different. Republicans might be successful in dismantling the program. ...

Enacting ObamaCare would be only the beginning. The controversy surrounding its passage and how it might work would preoccupy the president, Congress and millions of average Americans for the foreseeable future—and then some.

Read the rest here.

... 32 Quotes From Democrats:

Click here.

Joltin' Django is gonna be, ahem, very busy this week. The Nigh Seen Creeder will return on Friday, March 19.

In the meantime, check out Jim Geraghty's blog for up-to-the hour updates on the progress of ObamaCare, aka the Fraud of Since the Republic Came to Be.

"The Israeli-Palestinian conflict isn't territorial. It's existential. Israelis are now broadly prepared to live with a Palestinian state along their borders. Palestinians are not yet willing to live with a Jewish state along theirs."

-- Bret Stephens

From Big Government:

Remember Schoolhouse Rock, that civic-minded Saturday morning cartoon short from the 1970s? It’s time to update it for the Obama Era.

”I’m Just a Law”

LAW (singing): I’m just a law, yes I’m only a law,
And I don’t know why they passed me at all.
Cause — no — one — knows what is in me
No one’s read a darn word,
I was typed up last night
By a 20-year-old nerd,
But Pelosi twisted elbows all day.
How I hoped and prayed they would stall
But today, all in all, I’m a law.

BOY: Hello, Law, why so glum?

LAW: I’m two thousand pages long and no one’s even read me yet.

BOY: Then how did they pass you?

LAW: The Democrats used something called reconciliation.

BOY: Recon-what?

LAW: It means they can write any bill and pass it whenever they want. It’s against the rules.

BOY: That doesn’t sound very democratic.

LAW: Actually, it is! In a pure democracy, the majority rules.

BOY: But I thought we lived in a republic!

LAW: Me too, kid. Me too.

(singing) I’m just a law, yes I’m only a law,
And they don’t know what is in me at all.
Do — I — ban — incandescent light bulbs? Do I tax gasoline?
End health care as we know it, if you know what I mean?
Or maybe I just spend lots of dough,
Hey, you’ll never know, it’s too late
Because Nancy and Harry sealed your fate.

NANCY PELOSI: Hello, Law.

HARRY REID: Ready to reform health care?

BOY: Didn’t Congress already pass health care reform?

LAW: They did. But since the American people turned against it, they’re scared to bring the old bill up for a final vote.

PELOSI: I’m not scared. That’s just my eyebrows.

LAW (singing): I’ll be spreading the wealth, spending trillions on health,
I’m a single-payer system by stealth,
But — the — Republicans can’t stop me, even with Scotty Brown.
Obama said he’ll never let them vote my ass down.
I’m as popular as powdered anthrax,
Hey, they don’t mind the attacks,
‘Cause I’m one more excuse just to tax.

BOY: Look, it’s President Obama!

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Hello, Law. Pleased to meet you.

LAW: Wha — what are you gonna do with that pen?

OBAMA: Why, sign you, of course. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt — at first.

LAW: Oh, no!

PELOSI AND REID: Oh, yeah!

###

“Kill the Golden Goose”

BOY: Hey, Barry!

GIRL: What are you doing?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I’m making dinner for all of us! How would you like roast goose?

BOY: Mmmm!

GIRL: But where will we get it?

OBAMA: Look!

(He points to a golden goose in the distance).

OBAMA (singing): Let’s go kill the Golden Goose
It means more food for me and you,
Kill the Golden Goose today,
Before she runs away!

OBAMA: Look at those breasts and thighs and legs!

GIRL: But doesn’t she lay golden eggs?

OBAMA (singing): Yes, but you don’t understand.
There are hungry folks throughout the land!
They need the food, don’t make them beg!
It’s better than a dumb old egg.

BOY: I thought the eggs helped mom and dad.

OBAMA: Listen, my naive young lad. The goose was put on this earth to help people. If she just lays golden eggs, the only person she ever helps is her owner! But if we kill her, we can serve ALL Americans, not just the wealthy few.

(singing) What good is a lump of gold
When you’re starving, shivering in the cold?

So let’s go kill the Golden Goose
It means more food for me and you
Kill the Golden Goose today,
Before she runs away!

BOY: How did the goose get so fat?

OBAMA: Let me tell you a story. Long before you were born, a man named Ronald Reagan decided to feed the goose instead of the people. He wanted it to lay more eggs for its owners. He called it “trickle-down.”

BOY: That’s greedy.

GIRL: And unfair!

OBAMA: But we put a stop to that. Before we got here, geese ran wild. Now they’re regulated –

BOY: — like a child!

GIRL: Wait a minute — has PETA heard?

OBAMA: Yes, they can’t wait to axe THIS bird!

(singing) So let’s go kill the Golden Goose
It means more food for me and you
Kill the Golden Goose today,
Before she runs — uh oh!

(Taxpayers holding pitchforks appear).

TAXPAYER 1: All right, Barry, let her be.

TAXPAYER 2: It’s not your bird, it’s owned by me.

TAXPAYER 3: Without this goose, we’d all be poor.

OBAMA (shaking his fist): Next time your goose is cooked, for sure!

###

Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of Schoolhouse Barack: “Cap’n Trade: Anti-Capitalist Pirate of the High Seas.”

Over the years I reckon I've witnessed some 200 bluegrass artists picking some 1,000+ bluegrass tunes.

Outta all those witnessed performances, if you will, there are maybe a dozen that are stuck in the part of my brain that permanently records memorable concert experiences.

Like the time the Osborne Brothers opened a Ryman Auditorium show, circa 1995, with "Midnight Flyer" (this ain't it, but you get the general musical idea) ...

Have you heard the radio ads in which folks are urged to complete the U.S. Census so's they and them can get their "fair share" of all kinds o' things?! I certainly have, and I wince every time I hear one of 'em.

Earlier today, I heard a PSA -- that's a Public Service Announcement for certain ignorant anonymous Creeder Readers -- urging folks to fill out the Census so's public schools will know how many students are a-comin'.

Now, let's get one thing straight: the Census has one purpose and one purpose only ... counting folks to apportion congressional districts. It ain't a welfare-state tool to determine how gov'ment largesse should be spent. Indeed, I defy anyone to study what took place back in 1787-88 and tell me otherwise.

That said, are there really any school districts in this land that rely on Census data to allocate resources? If there are, every elected official in that district, from the mayor down to the lowliest school board member, should be run out on a rail. I mean, so much can change in a school district from one year to the next (like a large factory closing/opening); thus, relying on demographic data that's compiled once every ten years to determine what should be spent, and where it should be spent, is foolhardy at best, and downright criminal at worst.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this: All of the U.S. Census ads I've heard thus far could just as easily be audio-ads on Barry Obama's Organizing for America Web site. That's bad in and of itself; but I'm pretty pissed that my tax dollars are being used to disseminate such statist horse-puckey, indeed.

One of my most prized possessions is a 1956 Topps Yogi Berra baseball card I bought at E Gads! (anybody remember E Gads! ...?) when I was 8 or 9-years-old. I think I paid 10 bucks. Right now, I wouldn't take a crisp hundred-dollar bill for it.

Check out these Yogi-isms. A sample:

"The future ain't what it used to be."

"I never said most of the things I said."

"You can see a lot by just looking."

"Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours."

Joltin' Django just placed an order for one of these:



I'm sure a great many Creeder Readers are saying, "Why, Django, you're a bluegrass-picker. What use do you have for a Wes Montgomery Gibson guitar?"

My answer is: 'Cause you can't make a Martin sound like this ...

Hey left-wing readers, ask yourself, "Do I disagree with this?" And here's the this ...

"Fight on with us for ... social justice, for a happy future for your children, for their right to advancement and education without regard to origin, for state protection for the aged and infirm."



Do you know who said that?



If you said Paul Joseph Goebbels, you win!



Congrats!

I was just perusing the Kim McMillan for Governor Web site. This line from the site's über-updated blog (!) really caught my attention:

"Tennessee needs jobs, and Tennessee needs a leader with experience producing jobs."

Ms. McMillan has spent her entire professional life workin' at law firms and drawing checks from Tennessee's taxpayers. Not only does she not know the first ****in' thing about what it's like to punch a clock or clean grease/grime/dirt from under one's dirty fingernails ... she's never in her life been in a position to hire someone who had to punch a clock and/or clean grease or grime or dirt from under his or her fingernails.

Kim McMillan has experience producing jobs?! If you believe that, you'll also believe that I'm an accomplished composer and librettist. (If you'd like to know why I got all operatic in my analogy, see here.)

For your viewing pleasure, the Hello Kitty AR-15 (from Riflegear.com):

Torry Johnson and Stewart Clifton, committed Democrats both, are on the host committee for Bill Gibbons' next Nashville meet-and-greet?

What the **** is up with that?!

It pains (embarrasses?) me to say it, but I was about this close -- put a three-centimeter distance between your thumb and forefinger -- from endorsing Bill Gibbons for Gov'na.

If ol' Bill's gonna cavort with a couple o' Nashvillie's finest hack Democrat politicos -- as well as I-always-look-and-reek-like-I-really-need-a-bath shysters like Rose Palermo -- he's is no longer on my endorsin' radar.

Indeed.

H.L. Mencken once said, "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." Every day when I consider that a majority of my fellow citizens picked one Barack "Barry" Hussein Obama -- the left-wing/never-had-a-real-job/community-organizer -- to be their president ... well, I can't help but think 'bout Mencken's prescient quote.

Mencken, of course, is no longer with us. The Sage of Baltimore's spirit, however, is present in this author-unknown quote that's making the rounds on the Interweb (I certainly wish I'd penned/said it) ...

The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the presidency. It will be easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to an electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails us. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The republic can survive a Barack Obama. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.

Unless you're a member of the Communist Party USA, the Democratic Socialists of America, or, well, the Democratic Party, how can you f'in' disagree with that?!

Something you need to know (from the Campaign for Working Families):

A key Obama agenda item is "climate change" and regulating energy use through some kind of cap and trade scheme. Despite what you may be hearing, the issue is not dead on Capitol Hill. Like healthcare "reform," cap and trade passed the House and liberal Democrats desperately want to see it reach Obama’s desk because it’s a huge revenue source for the administration. That means it’s a great big tax. But there’s more.

The New York Times this week reported on a Harvard study measuring the economic impact of the administration’s proposed carbon caps. To reach the targets Obama has set by 2020, carbon will be taxed at $60 a ton. That translates into gasoline prices of $7.00 a gallon. [Emphasis mine] ...

I think you also deserve to know that this study is not just a fluke. High gasoline prices are a priority for key administration officials like Obama’s Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu. In 2008, Chu told the Wall Street Journal, "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” At that time, gas in Europe was going for about $8.00 a gallon. I think you need to know this information so you can decide whether you are willing or able to afford Obama’s agenda. And in 242 days you can let Nancy Pelosi know how much you appreciate all her hard work on Obama’s agenda.

Once upon a time, I was a cub reporter/editor for my university's campus newspaper. Not a week went by during which we didn't get an unsolicited book from an author/publishing outfit with an accompanying letter pretty much begging us to do a book review.

One day I arrived in the newspaper's office to find a large package that obviously contained several books. The first book I pulled from said package was a two-inch thick tome which featured a hypodermic needle and the Union Jack on its cover. I don't know it for a fact, but I'm pretty sure I said "What the **** is this?" when I seen it.

Well, what the **** it 'twas was this: a book penned by an acolyte of Lyndon LaRouche in which the British Crown was blamed for the international drug trade. I was still a bit of a political neophyte at the time; however, I knew enough 'bout the ways of the world to be fully aware of the fact that "Lyndon LaRouche" equaled "nutbucket."

Fast forward a couple o' years - okay, a couple o' couple o' years - and word comes that a member of Lyndon LaRouche's personality cult has won a Democratic primary for a congressional seat in Texas. To wit:

Lyndon LaRouche's followers are celebrating the victory of a candidate they say is one of their own in the race to challenge the relatively safe -- at this point, I'd say extremely safe -- Republican Rep. Pete Olson.

Kesha Rogers appears to have run on a combination of populist themes -- opposition to the bail out, to health care reform, and to Wall Street -- and standard LaRouche lines, like impeaching the president and blaming the British for more or less everything.

As far as I can tell, not a single mainstream media outlet has expressed hiccupping horror over the fact that a first-class nut is now a major party nominee for a seat in Congress. Reckon what would happen if, say, a confirmed member of the John Birch Society won the GOP nod for anything?

We know the answer to that, don't we ...?!

[J]ust this week, Newsweek, which spent years ridiculing [President George W.] Bush, came out with a cover story titled "Victory at Last: The Emergence of a Democratic Iraq," in which the authors grudgingly and tentatively credit Bush with creating a democratic Iraq.

No word yet on whether Michael Moore will publicly cut off some fingers, like a failed Yakuza henchman, to atone for his misdeeds.

-- Jonah Goldberg

Joltin' Django's gonna be a bit out of pocket for the next couple o' days. The Nigh Seen Creeder will return on Friday, March 5.

Thanks for reading.

When I was in grad school, one of my profs took issue with me calling him a "socialist" during a spirited classroom debate 'bout ... well, I don't remember what the debate was about.

Once the issue-taking subsided, my socialist prof said, and I remember his exact words to this day, "Socialists believe in state control of the means of production; I believe in the regulation of the means of production."

When I asked for an academic explanation of how "control" and "regulation" differ, said prof suddenly didn't want nothing to do with me, Socratically-speaking -- maybe 'cause I also pointed out that he'd favorably name-checked Members of Congress who were members of the Democratic Socialists of America -- and I never got a clear answer.

That said, I couldn't help but think about my prof's I-Am-Not-A-Socialist! declaration when I read this letter in today's Wall Street Journal:

Dan Henninger gets the relationship between Washington and big business exactly right in "Obama's Business Buyout" (Wonder Land, Feb. 25): Washington seeks a mutually rewarding merger of common interests (i.e., an "M&A" agreement) with business, not a hostile takeover. In fact, one day after his Business Roundtable speech, President Obama stated unequivocally at the health summit that his "objective is not a takeover of health care." But understanding what the president means by that statement depends on what the definition of "is" is. If the strategy is to slowly bleed private insurers with price controls, coverage mandates and "public-private exchange" competition and the end result is shrunken, feeble or docile insurance companies, does that constitute a de facto takeover?

Socialism doesn't require ownership of the means of production; it merely requires control (formal or informal) of the means, along with an emphasis on use rather than profit, and an assurance of equitable distribution of goods and services. As Mr. Henninger indicates, President Obama's first budget statement, "A New Era of Responsibility: Renewing America's Promise," prioritizes economic fairness through redistribution of income. Spreading the wealth doesn't demand messy takeovers of business, just regulatory control and taxing authority.

Cozy "syndicalist" or "corporatist" (economist Friedrich Hayek's terms in the 1940s) or M&A relationships between big government and big business resurface periodically as a plausible third way between central planning and free markets. A syndicalist stage, however, always has been an unstable, transitional step to more complete government planning and centralization. Technically it's not socialism, but it's close enough for government work.

P. Grant
Rowayton, Conn.

Remember when President Obama said he and his fellow Dems had "no Plan B" vis-à-vis health care during the Great Health Care Summit? That lie was exposed on Friday when Nancy Pelosi announced that a semi-scaled-back version of the Senate's ObamaCare bill will start gettin' debated this Wednesday ... and reconciliation, said she, is still on the table in terms of gettin' it done.

I'm sure certain certain anonymous Creeder Readers greet this news with great enthusiasm, forgetting Obama's lie, of course. However, I have news for them:

National Review's Jim Geraghty has compiled the polling support/reject run-down on ObamaCare. Here 'tis:

Rasmussen: 41/56
Newsweek: 40/49
Public Policy Polling: 39/50
Pew: 38/50
Quinnipiac: 35/54
Ipsos/McClatchy: 37/51
NBC/WSJ: 31/46
CNN: 38/58
NPR: 39/55

Now, if Obama 'n' Pelosi 'n' Reid succeed -- which, thank God, is still a big "if" at this point -- in foisting upon the American people a gov'ment program they clearly do not want foisted upon 'em, the results of this November's congressional election will leave a great many card-carrying Democrats, and a great many Democrat-voting socialist turds, saying this: "Man, our side did good back in November 1994!"

Indeed.